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14
It would just touch Kevin Gates’ heart if you came to his show on Tuesday, Oct. 16. But if you’re not feeling that, check out nine other cool ideas in this week’s Top 10 on page 14.
We put out weekly 8
NEWS&CULTURE CHASING MONEY Pam Kelley’s new book ties the sentencing of a cocaine dealer in the ’80s to Charlotte’s issues today
BY RYAN PITKIN
NO PLACE LIKE HOME Belton Platt views Charlotte through a new lens after reading his own life story
9
BY RYAN PITKIN 7 EDITOR’S NOTE BY RYAN PITKIN 10 THE BLOTTER BY RYAN PITKIN 11 NEWS OF THE WEIRD
12
FOOD&DRINK THE BITTER BARRIER No one knows how to cook raddichio BY ARI LEVAUX 13 THREE-COURSE SPIEL: VEGAN LOVE CULTURE BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK
14 16
TOP 10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK
MUSIC ALTERNATIVE PLAY Black-centric music festival returns for a second year of inclusion
BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK 18 MUSICMAKER: CUZO KEY BY RYAN PITKIN 20 SOUNDBOARD
22
ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT FOLLOW THE MONEY ‘Hamilton’ arrives this week, lifting local artists
— or eclipsing them? BY PERRY TANNENBAUM
24 FILM REVIEWS BY MATT BRUNSON 25 ARTSPEAK: AUTHOR JEFF JACKSON BY PAT MORAN
26
ODDS&ENDS 26 NIGHTLIFE BY AERIN SPRUILL 27 CROSSWORD 28 SAVAGE LOVE BY DAN SAVAGE 30 SALOME’S STARS
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Even your grandma gets it.
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November 03, 2018
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7:30 PM $25 TICKETS
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NEWS
EDITOR’S NOTE
WHEN GOD SPEAKS Belton Platt listens for His word AS I SAT in the kitchen of Belton Platt’s inmates. After his incarceration, he moved to home in Concord on a recent afternoon, we went through the usual small talk that often a small South Carolina town near Myrtle precedes an interview. We talked about how Beach called Conway, where he founded Rock long he had lived there (two months) and Ministries Church International. Throughout the book, Kelley tells of the he offered me a glass of water and lunch (I times when Platt claimed he had spoken with accepted the former and declined the latter). Platt told me he never thought he would God. In fact, when she met with him in 2011 move back to the Charlotte area (he hates the — 25 years since their last meeting in Raleigh’s traffic) and laughed about the fact that his Central Prison — he predicted she would make stepdaughter had seen me through the door his story into a book, despite the fact that she when I first knocked but decided not to let me had no plans to do so. As he explains in our interview, on page in or let him know I was there. Then he did something that was a first 9 of this issue, God had told him to write his for me as a journalist. Before answering my life story while he was in prison, with the first question, he asked if he could pray. He understanding that it would someday become then prayed over the upcoming interview as a book. So when Kelley called, he knew it was God’s plan. if saying grace before dinner. I talked to him that day about his claims “Father in Jesus’ name, I just that he speaks with God, which he thank you for this day. I thank was more than happy to explain. you for your love, your joy, “I say God speaks to me,” he your peace,” he said. “Lord, says. “Well, if you believe in I just pray that whatever God, and you believe that God you intend to be here, made man — if he made the whatever you have me eye, can he not see? If he to say, I mean to say it made the ears, can he not Lord. I submit myself hear? If he made the mouth, to you, in Jesus’ name. think about it, can he not Amen.” speak? The question is, are we This didn’t surprise really listening? Are we really me. I had just finished a RYAN PITKIN hearing?” book titled Money Rock: A Now that he’s moved to back Family’s Story of Cocaine, Race, to the Charlotte area, Platt spends and Ambition in the New South, much of his time listening. Two weeks which tells Platt’s life story. In it, local author Pam Kelley describes how Platt after his return, he received a phone call found God before heading to prison for two from an old friend whom he hadn’t seen in decades on federal charges related to a drug 30 years. The man had been hanging out at the ring he’d been running in Charlotte, when he Blue Olive Lounge in Ballantyne with his was known as Money Rock. In one of the more ironic twists in Platt’s brother on the previous night, and just as story, he went to visit a pastor who ran the two were about to leave, a fight broke out a ministry that Platt’s mother had been in the parking lot. Platt’s friend watched his attending. After learning that much of the brother die that night, shot dead while trying hard-earned drug money he had been giving to break up the fight. After talking his old friend down from his his mother was going to this ministry, Platt vengeful inclinations, Platt began to reflect on thought he smelled a rat. Platt packed a gun and attended service the violence he was seeing in Charlotte. There with his mother, planning to have a personal had been more murders in Charlotte during talk with this preacher afterward to set him his first three weeks having lived here than in straight. As it turned out, the pastor was an three years that he lived in Conway. One recent night, inspired by Kelley’s old friend, and once the two connected, it would eventually send Platt down a road to book and his recent experience with his friend, Platt woke up at 5 a.m. and felt the redemption. He calls his decision to visit the preacher need to write. He grabbed his iPad and wrote that morning “the smartest dumb thing I a mission statement of sorts — which can be found at clclt.com — that touched on recent ever did.” As Kelley notes in her book, it’s a regular violence, systemic racism, social injustice and occurrence for folks to find God when they’re ways he hopes he can help confront these facing decades in prison. But for Platt, it was issues now that he’s back in Charlotte. If working for a more just society is God’s the real thing. Even after his sentence was handed down, he remained true to his calling, plan for Platt, I’m all for it. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM acting as a spiritual guide of sorts for other CLCLT.COM | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | 7
NEWS
NEWSMAKER
CHASING MONEY Pam Kelley’s new book ties the sentencing of a cocaine dealer in the ’80s to Charlotte’s issues today RYAN PITKIN
W
HEN
PAM KELLEY, a reporter with the Charlotte Observer, first met Belton Platt, aka Money Rock, at Central Prison in Raleigh in May 1986, he had recently been convicted for his role in a shootout in the Piedmont Courts housing project in Charlotte’s Belmont neighborhood. At the time, Platt was still appealing his conviction, which would later be overturned, and he had no interest in being truthful about his crimes to a member of the media, much less about his role as one of Charlotte’s most successful kingpins. When Kelley tracked him down again 25 years later — inspired to do so by reading Jay-Z’s Decoded memoir — Platt was much more forthcoming. “I didn’t know if he would tell me the truth, because he hadn’t in the past,” she told me when we met at the Old Town Public House in Davidson on a recent morning. “But I interviewed him and I was impressed with his degree of self-awareness, the fact that he had obviously done a lot of work on himself in prison, and just his openness.” Their ensuing conversations — followed by lots of reporting, research and corroboration — turned into a series of Observer stories in 2013, then a MFA thesis, then her new book, Money Rock: A Family’s Story of Cocaine, Race, and Ambition in the New South, released on Sept. 25. Before meeting with with Platt at his new home in Concord (see next page), I talked to Kelley about how the story of Platt and his family ties into Charlotte’s issues today and the struggles of low-income black families in the city that began long before he was born. Creative Loafing: Did you know when you started this work how much the Platt family’s struggle would tie into current-day issues? Pam Kelley: I would say it took a while for it to sink in and for me to really see the big picture. And as time went on there were these specific small stories that were about Belton’s family that were just these really good ways to illustrate the kind of systemic racism [they faced]. I’ll give you an example. His oldest daughter Kimberly was living in Dalton Village, she was going to middle school and she had to walk to the school bus and when
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she’d walk to the school bus, she confronted these boys in the neighborhood who would talk about raping her. She was scared, so she brought some kind of knife in her backpack. They found it at school and she explained why she was carrying it, they said they sympathized but they had zero tolerance. So she was expelled for the year and went to an alternative school in which she ended up mostly tutoring the other kids. That’s a great example of, “We’re going to be on tough on crime,” and there’s no justice in that. The same with two of Belton’s sons who ended up at the Morgan School, and I have no questions that they had major behavioral problems and were probably really difficult for teachers, but the Morgan School, a few years after they were there, the Observer was writing stories about how it was so bad, and CMS was saying, “Yeah, this has been a warehouse, sorry guys.” So, it was really remarkable about how many issues I could talk about through the stories of his family. Following the path of Belton’s children is certainly one of the most upsetting plotlines of the book. That again, I think, is a bigger part of the story about mass incarceration. One of the things Kimberly said to me, “When my daddy got sentenced, his kids got sentenced, too.” There’s now a growing body of research that shows that that is true; that kids with an incarcerated father are at greater risk for emotional problems, behavioral problems, apart from many other factors. So what we’ve done is we’ve created this cycle with mass incarceration. We’ve set up these kids to have problems, so that’ an issue that I think is really important and people need to understand. There are also people who play a big role in the book whose stories are uplifting, such as Belton’s mother Carrie Graves, or Judge Shirley Fulton. Did you know going in that telling the stories of people like Fulton and Graves would make it so easy to pull back the lens and tell a bigger story about Charlotte? I felt that pretty early, when I first interviewed Shirley, who had prosecuted Belton in Piedmont Courts. But what was so interesting about her was that she became a judge and eventually became very disenchanted with the system. So her story is a great vehicle to tell this bigger story about what’s happening with mass incarceration. And Carrie’s story was an amazing story because she grew up in Jim Crow Charlotte. I realized that these things that happened in her life, even the births of her children, which happened at different hospitals, starting at [Charlotte’s formerl all-black hospital] Good Samaritan, I could use her story to tell the story of Charlotte’s desegregation. One chapter in the book is dedicated to an in-depth series the Observer did that humanized members of lowincome, high-crime communities during a crime spike in 1992-’93. What are your thoughts on the shrinking size of newsrooms today, making such projects difficult? I think the dearth of local news in mediumsized cities around America is a huge
Author Pam Kelley (above) at Park Road Books during a recent event for her book, ‘Money Rock’ (below).
PHOTO BY NEEL STALLINGS
I’m a pretty literal, fact-based kind of gal. I wouldn’t say I was wary, and I hope I didn’t come across as wary, it was more that this is foreign to me. This is not in my world. But I respected his faith and the fact that God talks to him. I’ve never felt that myself, but I actually found a book by an academic [When God Talks Back by Tanya Luhrmann] who has explored this whole idea, and maybe 20 percent of the population says that God has talked to them. I thought she really explained it in a very respectful and interesting way. I’m hoping this book has a broad readership, and I figure that some of the people reading this book are going to be like me, and I couldn’t just go, “Well, and then God spoke to him again,” so I needed to kind of unpack that and tell them what I thought about it, and then what research says, which is that this is a big thing.
problem. One thing the Observer was able to do for years was give this community a shared narrative. And even when we didn’t agree politically, we kind of had some of the same facts to talk about, and that’s missing now, and that really concerns me. I definitely worry that we’re all looking at different narratives and some of them are polar opposite. Religion plays such a large role in this book. Are you religious? I would say I’m not a big believer, no. What is it like as a reporter who needs to source information and fact-check things to be reporting on someone who regularly claims to be communicating with God?
One of the hardest-hitting quotes in the book comes from you, near the end, discussing the many panel discussions and task forces that have formed since the Charlotte Uprising in 2016. You say, “If conversation alone could transform a place, Charlotte would be a burgeoning utopia.” Do you feel like these activities and discussions are setting us on a better track? I think they are bringing us somewhere. I worry sometimes that there’s a lot of people who go to many panels, and there’s a lot of people who don’t have any idea. We are seeing some progress. Even since I finished the book, I think there’s been some more progress on affordable housing. That said, what is needed is so huge. What I worry about is we’re going to do a few projects and then people are going to get tired of it and then move on, when what we really need is a transformation that requires a much longer-term commitment. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM
NEWS
NEWSMAKER
NO PLACE LIKE HOME Belton Platt views Charlotte through a new lens after reading his own life story RYAN PITKIN
T
HE FIRST THING I noticed when I pulled up to Belton Platt’s new home in Concord was the playground. Right across from his house sits an unassuming little multicolored jungle gym. Nobody was playing on it during the sunny afternoon that I visited Platt. It was in such pristine shape that the plastic shined in the sun. I couldn’t help but be reminded of a passage from Pam Kelley’s new book, Money Rock: A Family’s Story of Cocaine, Race and Ambition in the New South, which was released Sept. 25. It reads, “They crossed a bridge over a trickling creek, then passed a neighborhood park, with its broken merry-go-round and glass shards thick under the monkey bars.” Kelley was setting the scene for a confrontation between Platt, known then as Money Rock, and rival drug dealer Big Lou in 1985. The confrontation took place at Piedmont Courts, an old public housing project in Charlotte’s Belmont neighborhood. Platt and Big Lou’s altercation would spiral into a shootout, injuring multiple people, including innocent bystanders. Platt was eventually found guilty and sent to prison for charges stemming from the incident, and though the verdict was later overturned, he had gained the attention of authorities. He would later serve more than 20 years in prison on federal charges related to his role as one of Charlotte’s most successful cocaine kingpins. As I met Platt at his home on that recent afternoon, it was clear that he had come a long way from that playground with the broken merry-go-round. We sat and talked about the path he took to where he is today, and what he learned about his own life through Kelley’s book. Creative Loafing: Pam Kelley originally reached out to you in 2011 to write a series for the Charlotte Observer. What were your thoughts when she called you seven years ago? Belton Platt: It was amazing because while I was in prison, I just felt this urge. The Lord said, “Sit down and write your life story.” Could you imagine being surrounded with everything you’re surrounded with in prison, and there’s no hope of you getting out in the next 20 years? And so you get this word from God in you, and He says, “I want you to write your life story.” I had my manuscript ready, and so God had said to me that my life story would be in a book. So when she contacted me, I just told her, “Well, God told me.” Not being arrogant or facetious, I just know just as clear as you’re sitting in front of me that God spoke to me and told me my life story would be in a book.
So I was excited about it. But you know what? After you have done 21 and a half years in prison away from society, you move out to this place called Green Sea, [South Carolina,] where nothing is there, and you know it’s no way for no one to find you, and you have a private phone number, and somebody finds you [laughs], it’s meant to be. I wasn’t even concerned about why she called. I was really concerned about how you got my number. I said, “Pam, I understand why you called me but I’m more concerned about how you got my number,” and she giggled and said, “Well I work for the Charlotte Observer and we have ways of finding people.” She had come to meet you at Central Prison in Raleigh for an interview in 1986 that didn’t go so well, as is described in the book. What was your viewpoint about interviews and the media in general at that point? Put yourself in my shoes. This big gangster bully guy who terrorized this neighborhood for years, you and him have an altercation — to you, it was an altercation, but the papers said it was a drug turf war, when I know it wasn’t a drug turf war. When I read this in the paper, I felt like they was trying to make it something that it wasn’t. It was no different than you and I getting into an altercation. So when I saw the media and read everything that they were making it, I didn’t trust the media. But that was all the info that they had, and that’s understandable, but I knew the truth. So I thought the prosecutor was using the media to convict people and to get their side of the story out. So when Pam come to visit me to get a story and wanted to dig deeper into my life, I’m looking at her like, OK, she’s with them, she’s coming to ask me all these questions, she’s trying to set me up. Another thing, too, I was in denial of the truth. I was doing a lot of work helping people and using the money to help families and do all of this. I wasn’t out shooting people, I wasn’t out beating people like Big Lou and all them gangstas were. I was helping people while destroying the community with the drugs. So I was living a lie, but that lie was my truth. Now that you’re no longer in denial of that truth, how do you look back on your life as Money Rock? I look back on that as a young man lost in a society that had for a long time rejected us. Living without purpose, having no guidance from mentors, just trying to find his way in life. The sad story of it all is, when he thought he had found his way, it was the wrong way and he was led into a life that he never would understand. My biological father stepped into
Belton “Money Rock” Platt during an interview with Pam Kelley from inside the walls of Central Prison in Raleigh. my life having been gone all these years, and he essentially said, “This is the way to get anything out of life,” and taught me how to cut drugs, bag up drugs, and just sent me out there to sell drugs. I wasn’t a thug, I wasn’t a gangster, I was just a kid who had a cleaning business, trying to do the right thing, and I was led the wrong way. I was lost in that world, trying to navigate, believing that if I got enough money, all of my sorrows, all of my troubles, all of my mother’s and family’s troubles would be over. And I believe that that’s the deception that entraps so many people into illegal activities; whether it’s selling drugs, whether it’s cheating on taxes, whether it’s Ponzi schemes, whatever, it’s just that love of money. But in my heart of hearts, when I began to see the effects of drugs, I was miserable and wanted to get out, and that’s why I struggled. The books gives a lot of historical context for why so many people ended up selling or doing drugs in Charlotte’s low-income communities, as well as some details about powerful forces working against you personally while you were in the justice system. What was it like to read about all these things that affected your life so greatly? It was something I saw for the first time in my life, and I see it through the book. It opened my eyes, and I would always say “Look, I did it, I admitted to it, it was my choice and that was it.” I don’t blame government, I don’t blame my dad, I don’t blame anybody. But when I began to read that book, I said, “Oh my God.” Basically, I was caught up in a generational purge, in which society and history had a part to play in my position. And when you do certain things — redlining and all that — you produce this. I’m seeing something that’s larger than Pam and I through the book, all of this, and it has taken me now to a place where I see the need for social justice, when I did not see this in the beginning.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
You’ve been back in the Charlotte area now for two months. You said you never thought you’d live here again. What’s it like to see the city all these years later? To be honest, it’s awesome to see the city and how it has prospered and how it has grown, but it’s sad to see that the social issues have not gotten better, but worse. As a whole, they’re still being ignored, so to me, it’s sad, and to see the divide between AfricanAmericans and whites, Mexicans and blacks, Mexicans and whites, other nationalities, Muslims or Jews, whatever. When are we going to wake up and realize, if true change is going to come for all of us, we’ve got to come together? We’ve got to lay aside our bigotries, our religious differences, our racial differences, our political differences, and every other difference that we have, to come together and make this a corporate issue and say, “Look, stop blaming each other and realize we’ve all had a part in this and let’s change.” It’s good to see that Charlotte has grown and to see Charlotte’s recognition in this nation now as a great city, but Charlotte needs help. And I believe that Charlotte is in a position to help change as long as the people come together. I believe we have the resources; we have the talent to make an indelible impact on this nation through what we do in this city. I remember when Pam said that when Charlotte began to integrate the public schools, it became like a model for the rest of the nation. I believe that with Charlotte being the great city it is and has been, I believe we can make another mark on the nation — and keep it going this time — advocating social justice, liberty and justice for all, despite their creed, their color, their backgrounds. As a city we can choose to take on challenges like we have in the past, challenges that most cities are ignoring today, but we have to be willing to accept responsibility for our actions in order to make a change in our personal lives, in our neighborhoods, in our families, or in our city, state or nation. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | 9
NEWS
BLOTTER
BY RYAN PITKIN
GIMME MONEY A new term has entered The Blotter’s lexicon. Two officers recently responded to a call for “aggressive panhandling” — a first as far as we can remember — at the intersection of North Wendover and Marvin roads in southeast Charlotte. One responding officer stated that when he arrived on the scene, he saw a man walking along the median screaming at cars as they waited at the red light. He then approached one specific car and began yelling into the passenger window. It was then that the officer left his car and began walking up to the suspect, at which time the suspect darted out into the middle of the intersection and stood there, yelling at the cop. The officer eventually went out into the street to get the man, and he was charged with aggressive panhandling and blocking traffic. PLAYA In another Blotter first, a suspect was accused of bigamy in Uptown Charlotte last week, as his actions from two years ago came back to haunt him. A 51-year-old Mint Hill woman filed a report with CMPD stating that on Dec. 3, 2016, the suspect committed bigamy by marrying another woman at the Ritz-Carlton hotel while he was still married to the victim. EVICTED A 19-year-old woman in south
Charlotte was confused to come home one recent evening and find that she no longer had a home. The woman filed a police report stating that when she got to her apartment in the Strawberry Hill complex 9:45 p.m. on a recent night, she found that she had been locked out by her roommate, who had taken the measure of even having the locks changed, which I guess means that’s no longer your roommate.
UP LATE Staff at Insomnia Cookies in University City may be considering an earlier bedtime after a late-night robbery that happened earlier this month. According to the report, a suspect entered the business at 2 a.m. one morning and pulled a gun before demanding money. The suspect fired the gun during the robbery, but nobody was harmed. SWEET TOOTH Another company dealing
in sugary snacks was recently robbed for much more money than was taken in the aforementioned incident, but this time it was an inside job. An employee at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory couldn’t handle the temptation involved with working around all that sweet, sweet cash. Management recently found that between
10 | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
Sept. 1 and Oct. 3, the employee had stolen $7,500 from the store’s deposits.
DOPED UP Management at another
business in Charlotte also recently found out that an employee had been cheating them out of merchandise for about eight months. Someone with Peak Resources of Charlotte on the east side of town reported that between January and August of this year, an employee took “multiple types of narcotics from a single tote,” stealing an overall total of $20,000 worth of drugs from the business.
GOOD LUCK WITH THAT One local
woman didn’t exactly steal from her company like the two employees described above, but she’s probably still in the dog house with her employer after a major brain fart cost them upwards of $1,000. The woman told police that she had placed a work laptop on the window sill at Blackfinn Ameripub in Uptown Charlotte. She left it there, and only realized she had done so “a couple days later,” according to the report. Needless to say, the laptop, which belonged to the business she works for, was no longer there when she finally made her way back to look for it.
LIGHTS OUT When you have a good
relationship with your neighbor, it’s fine to walk across the street and ask to borrow some sugar, maybe even a light bulb if you’re in need, but when those relationships become strained, sometimes you just have to help yourself. A 33-year-old woman in the Windsor Park neighborhood of east Charlotte filed a police report last week after shit got dark at her house. The woman told police that a known suspect walked onto her front porch and unscrewed the light bulb from her light fixture. Just to be clear, she included that “the suspect showed no intention of returning the light bulb.”
PARTY FAVORS A 20-year-old woman
in University City threw a party last week only to find out that her friends are all huge assholes. As she made her rounds the day after the party she found that the night of fun had cost her upwards of $600, as someone stole her iPad, her $500 Michael Kors watch and a jacket, all of which were in her bedroom, where nobody was supposed to be hanging out. All stories are pulled from police reports at CMPD headquarters. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty.
NEWS
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
FAMILY VALUES Laurence Mitchell, 53, gets this week’s Most Helpful Dad award for graciously driving his 15-year-old son and the son’s girlfriend, also 15, to a Port St. Lucie, Florida, park on Sept. 6 so they could “do their thang,” as Mitchell described it. The Smoking Gun reported that when Port St. Lucie police officer Clayton Baldwin approached Mitchell’s car around 11:30 p.m., after the park had closed, Mitchell told him the kids “aren’t out there stealing, they are just having sex. They could be out there doing worse.” When the teenagers returned from the nearby soccer field, Mitchell’s son told the officer they were “just smokin’ and f---in’.” Mitchell was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor. THOU SHALT NOT While shopping at a Peoria, Illinois, Walmart on Sept. 20, an unnamed 30-year-old woman filled her cart but also added a few items to her backpack: leggings, pencils, a quart of oil and a “Jesus Calling” Bible. After she paid for only the items in her cart, a loss prevention officer stopped her before she left the store. Peoria police were summoned, reported the Peoria Journal Star, and the woman explained to them she was hoping the Bible could help her spiritually: “(She) told me that it sounds strange, but she was trying to be more Christian,” an officer reported. She was charged with misdemeanor theft. THE HIGH ROAD After trying repeatedly on Sept. 12 to pull over a Toyota Prius driving with expired tags on I-5 near Marysville, Washington, a Washington State Patrol officer finally caught up to the car at an intersection and verbally instructed the unnamed 42-year-old woman driver to pull over, reported the Everett Daily Herald. “I will not. I drive a Prius,” was the woman’s reply. The officer then asked her to step out of the vehicle, which she also refused to do, so he forced her out. “I will own your bank account,” she told him. “I will own your house.” When he asked her name, she responded, “None of your business.” Finally, she was arrested for failing to obey instructions, failing to identify herself and obstruction. NO GOOD DEED Tammie Hedges of Goldsboro, North Carolina, founded the nonprofit Crazy’s Claws N Paws in 2013 to help low-income families with vet bills and pet supplies, so it was natural for her to take in 27 animals displaced by Hurricane Florence in September. Hedges treated many of the animals, found in the streets or surrendered by fleeing residents, with
antibiotics and painkillers for fleas, cuts and other ailments. For that, The Washington Post reported, she was arrested on Sept. 21 for practicing veterinary medicine without a license, after an official from Wayne County Animal Services visited the warehouse where the animals were housed. Kathie Davidson, a volunteer with Claws N Paws, said: “If she hadn’t done what she did, then they’ll be charging her with animal neglect and cruelty. What was she supposed to do?” Hedges was released on bond, and the charges were later dropped.
BAIT AND SWITCH Ironman triathlete Jaroslav Bobrowski, 30, of Landshut, Bavaria, was banned Sept. 14 from Running Sushi, an all-you-can-eat restaurant, for eating too much sushi. The Local Germany reported Bobrowski, a former bodybuilder, ate close to 100 plates of sushi, which sent the restaurant into a panic and caused the owner and chef to tell him he was banished “because I’m eating too much.” “He eats for five people,” the owner complained. “That is not normal.” WAIT, WHAT? An unnamed 26-year-old
British woman appeared at Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria Hospital emergency room in Mojon de Arona, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands on Sept. 15 with extreme pain in her groin area. El Pais reported the doctor who examined her was surprised to find a dead, immature Chinese pond turtle lodged in her vagina. The woman told police she had attended a beach party the night before but could not remember what happened. (Given that the freshwater species is sold in pet shops, it’s not likely that it got there by accident.) Police suspect she may have been the victim of a sexual assault, but she chose not to file a complaint.
PEOPLE WITH ISSUES In what the
Porter County (Indiana) coroner later called “a blatant disregard for human life,” two men posted a video of themselves “horseplaying” with a third man, 21-year-old Kyle Kearby, who was slumped over, suffering from an apparent drug overdose, on Sept. 9. The video shows one man tying cords to Kearby’s hands and manipulating his arms like a puppet, and the other pumping Kearby’s chest and moving his mouth while singing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.” Kearby’s father told The Times his son returned home about 5:30 a.m. and went to bed, but later discovered him not breathing and covered with vomit. He died at a hospital. Porter County Sheriff Dave Reynolds said he
does not suspect foul play.
PAPER TRAIL Romance novelist Nancy Crampton Brophy, 68, was arrested on Sept. 5 on charges of murdering her husband, Daniel Brophy, 63, in Portland, Oregon, after apparently following her own advice, written in a 2011 essay titled “How to Murder Your Husband.” In the essay, Crampton Brophy suggests that hiring a hit man is “never a good idea” and poison is traceable. Instead, reported The Oregonian, she allegedly shot her husband on June 2 at the Oregon Culinary Institute where Daniel was a beloved chef. Police did not release a motive, and a neighbor said Crampton Brophy “never showed any signs of being upset or sad.” On Sept. 17, she pleaded not guilty in Multnomah County Circuit Court, and her trial is set for Oct. 26.
PRIVATE PEOPLE The Martin County (Florida) Sheriff ’s Office has received repeated calls about a man in a Stuart neighborhood who conducts chores around the outside of his house in the nude. “I came out Sunday night to put the trash out, and I look over and he is bent over, winding up his hose, and I’m like that is my view of the neighborhood,” huffed Melissa Ny to WPBF TV on Sept. 19. Other neighbors are taking a more measured approach. “Literally they are the nicest people you’ll ever meet; they would give you their clothes if they had them on to give them to you,” neighbor Aimee Canterbury told WPTV. The sheriff’s department says there is nothing they can do as long as the man is on his own property and not touching himself inappropriately. The nudist declined to be interviewed, saying he and his family are private people.
WEIRD SCIENCE It’s been a banner year for the spider population of Aitoliko, Greece, according to the Associated Press. Fueled by a huge increase in the numbers of lake flies, which the spiders eat, the spiders reproduced unusually fast and have covered coastal trees, bushes and low vegetation with blankets of thick, sticky webs. The webs run along a few hundred meters of the shoreline in the western Greek town and, according to residents, have the unexpected advantage of keeping mosquitoes away.
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COPYRIGHT 2018 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION CLCLT.COM | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | 11
FEATURE
FOOD
THE BITTER BARRIER No one knows how to cook radicchio ARI LEVAUX
I
T ISN’T TRUE what they
say about cooking radicchio. Whatever it is that they say, it isn’t true. Few plants radiate as much beauty as radicchio; even fewer do so while simultaneously delivering black belt-level bitterness. In the produce section, radicchio stands out, its deep purple foliage making the veins appear all the more blindingly white, emanating a sense of clean crisp. At home, you find that sharp dress to be more than skin deep. The leaves taste like something that most people would just as soon spit out as soon as possible. Because what they’ve learned about radicchio is wrong. Those burgundy leaves are as tightlypacked as those of a head of cabbage, and just as crispy, but the radicchio’s crisp depends on water pressure rather than the fiber that gives cabbage its crunch. A more important distinction is that the spicy elements of cabbage flavor do mellow with cooking, unlike the bitter elements of radicchio. Confusing radicchio and cabbage may be at the root of why everyone is wrong about radicchio; even Wikipedia seems to conflate the two, which come from different plant families entirely. Every recipe for cooked radicchio that you will find includes some note about how braising or grilling or whatevering radicchio will soften, mellow, relax or otherwise temper its taste. That may work for cabbage, but radicchio is a whole different plant. If anything softens when you cook radicchio, it’s the radicchio itself, which collapses into a damp heap as the leaves weep the water that had once pressurized their stout bodies, which are no longer royal purple and dazzling white, but dilute gray brown. All of the bitterness remains, and that’s OK. The problem is the slimy, stringy remains of a dish that appears to be in a state of decay, and shouldn’t have been prepared to begin with. Because most toxins are bitter, humans have understandably become wired to regard bitter flavors with extreme skepticism. But clearly we are also born with the capacity to override this aversion, and actually come around to appreciate certain bitter flavors on a case-by-case basis. Chocolate, coffee and beer, for example, have all earned passes, as they are non12 | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17 2018 | CLCLT.COM
toxic, or even pleasantly intoxicating, or stimulating, and make us feel good in various ways. But with bitter vegetables the benefit of swallowing is not so immediately obvious. And without something to compel us to accept a certain type of bitterness, we often stay in default mode, and simply avoid these flavors. But these bitter flavors, aside from the various feelings they invoke, are worth exploring for the sake of flavor alone. Jennifer McLagan, author of the awardwinning Bitter: A Taste of the World’s Most Dangerous Flavor, likens bitterness to a kind of wizened charisma, “... a silver-haired man in a tailored suit, with a hint of a bad-boy aura about him.” “Bitter,” she writes, “is a cultured, intriguing, and sophisticated taste, with a dangerous side. Who could be more fun to cook or to dine with?” My wife seems to agree. She would sooner dine with a bowl of radicchio than her husband. We live on a radicchio sanctuary institute, where my wife is chief caretaker, lead researcher and executive salad dressing maker. She is so far past the bitter barrier that bitter tastes better to her than sweet. Many of these bitter flavors come from vitamins, antioxidants and various phytonutrients, which are biologically active plant compounds associated with positive health effects. My wife eats radicchio like some people eat chips and salsa. She either peels the leaves off a head, or slices it into wedges. Either way, she’s dipping the radicchio unit into her special dressing, which consists
CHOCOLATE RADICCHIO DRESSING
¾ cup XVOO 1 teaspoon hot cocoa powder ¼ cup balsamic 2 teaspoons IPA beer, preferably a citrus-y brew 1 teaspoon of lime or lemon juice
Salt, black pepper, garlic powder, cumin, to taste. Combine ingredients, season to taste by dipping leaves and testing. When it tastes right, continue dipping your leaves into the dressing. Or better yet, use the dressing to flavor goodies that you can wrap in radicchio. Those purple leaves may not like being cooked themselves, but wrapped around rich foods, they not only add a dignified dose of bitterness, but hold it all together for perfect mouthfuls every time. My favorite use of my new dressing, so far, is to toss it with rounds of panfried sausage and fried cheese curd. Place those in a radicchio leaf with raw shallot, pine nuts and a slice of jalapeno, and maybe another dollop of dressing. Fold, insert in mouth, bliss out bitterly, repeat. If this mouthful of bitter, sweet, spicy, sour, salty fat doesn’t make you a bitter believer, it may not be in the cards. But at least you didn’t waste any time, or radicchio, cooking it limp.
of two parts XVOO, one part soy sauce, one part vinegar (the vinegar portion being equal parts cider and balsamic vinegars) and half a lime for each cup of dressing. Her typical dinner consists of six to 10 radicchio heads, or a massive bowl of leaves from the sanctuary, where the harvest of entire heads is frowned upon. Her dressing is designed to celebrate, rather than hide the bitterness. She says eating all that radicchio makes her body feel good, approximately as good as coffee, beer and chocolate combined (not literally combined) make normal people feel. Being a relative grasshopper in radicchiology compared to her, I don’t mind a little assistance in order to get to that special place. So I’ve designed my own chocolate and beer-based salad dressing, with which to handle life’s bitterest leaves. Some may consider it cheating to incorporate chocolate and beer, but I call it science. By surrounding the bitter flavors of radicchio with bitter flavors from elsewhere, the bitter jolt of a naked bite is couched in layered complexity, a context that has the effect of softening the bitter like cooking wishes it could. In addition to the beer — a citrusy IPA, ideally — and the chocolate, which is added in the form of powdered hot cocoa mix, the dressing contains bitter notes from olive oil, garlic powder and cumin. Meanwhile, the bitter flavors are countered by the sweetness of the hot chocolate mix, and acidity from the vinegar, lime juice and the beer. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
FOOD
THREE-COURSE SPIEL
Morathi Howie of Vegan Love Culture.
PLANTING THE SEED CEO of vegan company endorses the plant-based lifestyle for everyone BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK
THE PATH TO VEGANISM chose Morathi
Howie. While at North Carolina Central University in Durham, he was headed to the cafeteria for “chicken Wednesday” with a friend when they informed him they were vegan. “What do you mean you don’t eat meat?” he recalled of his incredulous reply. After a long talk with his vegan friend, he returned to his dorm room, mulling the conversation over in his head. “A lot of things that he said just made so much sense and it resonated in my spirit, and so that’s what led me on my path,” Howie explained. That’s when he decided to make the switch to a plant-based lifestyle. He grabbed some friends to take him to Whole Foods around the corner and help him make informed decisions about his new vegan diet and lifestyle. “Then my journey went from there and I never turned back,” he finalized. In 2006, he moved to Zimbabwe on a whim with a friend. To try it out, he decided he would stay at least 30 days, but those 30 days turned into 11 years. Through the company he was with, he spread the vegan lifestyle to Zimbabwe’s population by importing vegan food from stores in South Africa. In 2017, he returned to the United States and is now the CEO of Vegan Love Culture, a company dedicated to helping people switch to the vegan lifestyle to heal their bodies and the earth with a healthier diet and life. Now, 20 years after his switch, Creative Loafing caught up with Howie as he sat in a swanky University-area wine shop. He wore colorful paper bead necklaces around his neck and a T-shirt from Vegan Love Culture. At the upcoming Charlotte VegFest 2018 on Oct. 13, Howie will speak on a panel about vegan parenting. We discussed the environmental benefits of the plant-based lifestyle and how intimidating it can be to go vegan. Creative Loafing: What kind of impact do you expect VegFest 2018 to have on the Charlotte community? Morathi Howie: Anybody that been paying attention will see that veganism has taken a quantum leap jump from just a year ago. Everywhere you look, everyone is talking about going vegan. I mean it’s a cool word to say now. There are a lot of people that have a lot of questions about this lifestyle. Some people have really, really taken this word and they complicated it for people and it needs to be simplified. By coming out to the vegan fest, it will be simplified for you. You get a chance to
go around and you get a chance to go to each vendor spot. There will be over 75-80 vendors speaking on different things dealing with veganism. And you can get a clear understanding on what the lifestyle is about all the way from clothing to preserving the earth, to preserving animals and your health. So by coming out to this event, not only is it going to do that, but there’s a lot of [division] going on in America. One thing about the vegan lifestyle, it brings people together. You get me? And we need that very, very badly in America and in Charlotte. We’re saying everyone needs to come out, this is a diverse event, it’s going to be familyfriendly, it’s a free event, you can come out, learn about this lifestyle. I’ll be out there on the panel for vegan parenting to speak about how you can help your children to become vegan. We’ll have different cooking demos that will be going on while there will also be vendors there; soulful vegan food, Thai vegan food, Jamaican vegan food, just different types of vegan food that people can taste. So they can be like, “OK, I thought it was all about eating just vegetables,” but there’s a way that you can eat whatever you want and it can be healthier for your life. I’ll definitely say, to encompass everything, there’s going to be a lot of love and unity to a lot of people and we really need that in this time. What kind of environmental benefits does veganism have? I do what you call a “Meatless Monday Movement.” Meatless Monday has been going on forever. I just call it Meatless Monday Movement, where people that know me and follow me, I encourage them to go meatless just for one day out of the week. For health, for what it does for the environment and for what it does for animals. Let’s take for example, if someone goes meatless, Meatless Monday, they just do a meatless Monday. They preserve so much water on a daily basis that’s being used to feed cows. They preserve so much of the Earth and so many of the crops that are being fed to the cows. It stops so much of the gas emission that’s going out on the daily basis that’s destroying our environment. So by going vegan, you literally save the planet. You literally save the earth. That’s basically what you’re doing. By taking the plants that come from the earth which grow year round you’re saving the planet. That’s basically what they’re saying. How can a non-vegan begin to approach this lifestyle if they are unsure if it’s for them, personally? A lot reasons why a lot of people follow me
Morathi Howie spreads the love and practice of veganism.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ILL MUSE CREATIVE
VEGFEST CHARLOTTE 2018 Free; Oct. 13, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.; The Park Expo, 800 Briar Creek Rd.; veganclt.com
PHOTO COURTESY OF ILL MUSE CREATIVE
is for the reason that I never would shove this life down anyone’s throat. Because first of all, for me, being a vegan, I wasn’t vegan all my life and I put myself in other people’s shoes. I used to love the Whopper, I used to love McDonald’s I used to do all of that. I put myself in their shoes and say, “One day at a time, with urgency.” No one understands that if you go on into this lifestyle, that once you go into it, it’s going to help you to become more healthier, but at the same time, you take your time. For people that are feeling kind of hesitant because they feel like they’re being judged by the vegan community, which I think happens a lot, I would tell anybody that if you come out to this fest you will run into more vegans and non-vegans that are very, very friendly people that will talk
to you. They’re not going to shun, you they’re not going to tell you you’re wrong for what you’re doing, and they will give you assistance in how you can become vegan. But I would tell most people that are meat eaters do Meatless Mondays. Start off with Meatless Monday, just take out some time, even if you want to incorporate the whole month or the whole year or whatever, carve out some time for you and the family, or yourself and make meatless meals on Monday. While you’re making these meatless meals find out what accumulation is for your body. Because we accumulate bad health. The same way that we accumulate bad health we can accumulate good health. So I would tell someone to start off with Meatless Mondays. That is that. And then seeing where that road takes you, you may not become a full vegan. You may say, “Well you know what? I do care about this environment, I do care about animals, I’m a dog lover. Why am I doing this to cows? They’re the same spirit being as a dog. Why am I doing this to chickens?” It may wake them up to give them a better understanding. So it’s really about information more than anything to make someone comfortable to be able to go into the lifestyle. CMIHOCIK@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | 13
THURSDAY
11
FORCED FROM HOME What: You may have been distracted by more domestic affairs here in the U.S., but the refugee crisis is still raging overseas. This interactive world-touring exhibit, which is hosted by Doctors Without Borders, makes use of virtual reality and 360-degree video, while allowing visitors to interact with items gathered from refugee camps, sea rescue missions, and emergency medical projects around the world. When: Times vary, runs through Oct. 14 Where: NASCAR Hall of Fame, 400 E. MLK Jr. Blvd. More: Free. tinyurl.com/ ForcedFromHomeCLT
THURSDAY
11
UMPHREY’S MCGEE What: It’s the best jam band you’ve never heard of. Since their formation in South Bend, Indiana, in 1997, Umphrey’s McGee has released 12 studio albums. In 2018 alone, the former Notre Dame students released It’s Not Us in January, followed by It’s You in May. Most notably, their song “Can’t Rock My Dream Face” from Zonkey brings the true funk, soul and jazzy jam vibes that Umphrey’s McGee is most known for. You won’t be able to feel your face when you’re with them. When: 7:30 p.m. Where: The Fillmore, 820 Hamilton St. More: $30. fillmorenc.com
THINGS TO DO
TOP TEN
Mike Shinoda WEDNESDAY
PHOTO BY FRANK MADDOCKS
FRIDAY
THURSDAY
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11
TALKING WALLS MURAL FEST What: From Oct. 10 to 13, local, regional and international artists are going to paint the town red — and every other color on the spectrum. Charlotte’s first mural festival is an effort to “eliminate the beige” from the city’s vernacular. Sixteen artists will be hitting 14 spots around north and east Charlotte, from alleys in Uptown to tire shops on The Plaza. Artists include Obso, Garden of Journey, Nick Napoletano, Arko83 and Owl. When: Times vary Where: Locations vary, check website for map More: Free. talkingwallscharlotte. com
TEDX CHARLOTTE
13 TALK OF THE TOWN
What: Even folks who have been living under a rock know about TED Talks (assuming the rock has Wi-Fi). But did you know that an independently run event in Charlotte has been hosting local speakers for eight years now? Get off YouTube and go to this year’s event, which features 13 speakers spread throughout the day. Two presentations we’re looking most forward to: Khalia Braswell’s “From the West Side to the West Coast” and Travis Jones’ “Bad White People.”
What: While Town Brewing’s doors have been officially opened for a couple weeks, the whole team is celebrating with a community block party in FreeMoreWest. It’s the perfect time of the season to enjoy the open patio, the menu — which was designed to pair with delicious brews — and the celebratory champagne-like Belgian beer brewed just for this event. Party it up all day or just for a few hours, but either way, cheers to a new brew pub in the Queen City.
When: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Where: Dale Halton Theater, 1206 Elizabeth Ave. More: $35-50. tedxcharlotte.com
When: 9 a.m. - 11 p.m. Where: Town Brewing Company, 800 Grandin Rd. More: Free. townbrewing.com
Be sure to visit clclt.com on Thursday, Oct. 11, to check out episode 60 of Local Vibes. And remember, to catch up with every episode of Charlotte’s first local music podcast, all you’ve got to do is type “Local Vibes” into your Spotify search bar. 14 | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
FRIDAY
Talk of the Town SATURDAY
Forced From Home THURSDAY
NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS
Von Hunter SATURDAY COURTESY OF VON HUNTER
SATURDAY
13
VON HUNTER What: You’ve seen Von Hunter around, hitting the brewery circuits and the open mics, performing a mix of covers and originals while sharing his ideas about love, power and consciousness. Now it’s time for him to drop his debut album, The Rising, a mix of funk, soul and reggae. The dreadlocked military vet left the corporate world and embarked on a spiritual journey after deciding that there was something not right with the ways of the world. Fellow locals Deoin Reverie and Nige Hood open. When: 8 p.m. Where: Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. More: $8. petrasbar.com
COURTESY OF TOWN BREWING
SATURDAY
13
LOST HOLLOW MUSIC FESTIVAL What: Surround yourself in the garden scenery and enjoy musicians from around the country at Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. Charlotte-based Sinners & Saints will take the stage and serenade with twang-y vocals and a Southern rustic sound and Carolina Sunrise is bringing the praise with a bluegrass gospel vibe. If you’re low on dough, bring your instrument of choice and jam with the Catawba River Bluegrass Association for free admission. When: Oct. 14-15, 12-11 p.m Where: Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, 6500 S. New Hope Rd. More: $6.95 and up. dsbg.org
PHOTO BY ELIAS WILLIAMS
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
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17
WEDNESDAY
17
KEVIN GATES
EARLY VOTING
MIKE SHINODA
What: Autobiographical lyrics and honesty are a central focus for this rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 2016, Kevin Gates released his only studio album, Islah, which was named after his daughter. The album features absolute bangers such as “Really Really” and “2 Phones,” and also a more ballad-esque track, “Time For That.” Gates converted to Islam two years ago after deciding he didn’t “like the vibe” of churches, but the vibe in Ovens should be lit.
What: This November is a chance for everyone who marched to show they won’t accept a president who demonizes immigrants, refugees, sexual assault victims, disabled people and black athletes willing to take a stand against injustice and members of the free press just doing their jobs. Vote out all that man’s spineless acolytes. Join the Human Rights Campaign and Equality NC on the first morning of early voting to show power in numbers and eat free donuts.
What: You know him as part of Linkin Park, but he has since branched out into a solo career after the death of bandmate Chester Bennington. Mike Shinoda released Post Traumatic EP in January, detailing his own emotions about Bennington’s suicide. He’s since released a full studio album under the same name. His heavy lyrics paired with his talented vocals bring the waterworks in memory of the band, so prepare to bring tissues to The Fillmore for his show.
When: 8 p.m. Where: Ovens Auditorium, 2700 E Independence Blvd. More: $44.50 and up. fillmorenc.com
When: 7-9 a.m. Where: Hal Marshall Annex, 618 N. College St. More: Free. tinyurl.com/VoteDonuts
When: 8 p.m. Where: The Fillmore, 820 Hamilton St. More: $25. fillmorenc.com
Also, be sure to go check out queencitypodcastnetwork.com to see what’s up with all our other QCPN teammates. We’ve been adding some podcasts to the lineup, and there’s no better place to find all things audio in the Queen City. CLCLT.COM | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | 15
MUSIC
FEATURE
PHOTO BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK
Charles Ovett, aka Dallas Thrasher.
ALTERNATIVE PLAY Black-centric music festival returns for a second year of inclusion BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK
W
HEN YOU THINK about black musicians, what genres do you think about? Rap, hip-hop, R&B? Soul, jazz or Motown? The Bla/Alt Festival, founded by LeAnna Eden, was launched with the intention of flipping that script. The festival, dubbed “an inclusion of black identity,” boasts a lineup of blackfronted alternative musicians and bands from the Charlotte area to show that not all black musicians are rappers or hip-hop artists. The punk, rock, indie and alternative music scenes are genres that are saturated with white men, so it’s important to the community to showcase the black musicians who are also thriving. Eden, who launched the festival for a successful inaugrual run last year, said it’s been easier to throw the festival this year because of the community support that she’s received in sponsorships, donations and excitement. The free and family-friendly event on Saturday, Oct. 20, is meant to bring the community together. “I want people to come because they want to listen to some music and have a great time,” She said. “And I want to see some little kids dancing and just be chill. ‘Cause that’s what community is, as long as we can come together and be chill and have a great time.” Leading up to the festival, Creative Loafing caught up with all the local bands on the lineup to talk about community, music and black identity. LEANNA EDEN & THE GARDEN OF
Eden moved to Charlotte a few years ago and found her spot in the black rock scene, however lacking it was. Over the years, she has evolved her band’s sound and even released a self-titled EP. Most of her inspiration comes from failed relationships and the people that she’s met in her life. LeAnna Eden & The Garden Of track “Walk Away” is about doing the best thing for yourself and walking away from a relationship, no matter how hard it is. The “sequel” to that track, “There’s A Lot of Love,” follows up post-relationship about how you just have to keep going. “That songs about getting out of it and trying to convince yourself,” she said. “Every day you gotta get up and you gotta do what you gotta do.” 16 | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
[I] JUST ENJOY WRITING AND HAVE FUN WITH IT WHILE I’M DOING IT. SCRAP A BUNCH, FILL IT BACK OUT AGAIN, SCRAP SOME MORE, PULL IT BACK OUT AGAIN UNTIL I HAVE SOMETHING THAT REALLY WORKS AND GELS AND JUST RUN WITH IT. CHARLES OVETT, DALLAS THRASHER Her smooth vocals lay over the quick guitar riffs and heavy drums and bass. It’s easy to connect with her music, as her lyrics give listeners a finger on the pulse of emotion in the songs. Eden has come a long way from the days of showing up to shows with only a guitar and no stage plot. She had to learn to manage her band through scouring for information. To her, it’s important that bands share information to help lift one another up and she’s always willing to help out with a band or artist just starting out and coming into the scene. “If I have any kind of information, I will always give it out. And I feel like that’s another thing with communities that people forget is it’s about sharing,” Eden said. “If you have something that can help someone else grow and to further themselves, why wouldn’t you share that information?”
the opportunity to play in an environment that was built for black musicians. “I think that it’s just going to feel kind of like we’re at home and we can fit in,” Ramikissoon said. “Not that we don’t have to prove anything, but we can just get out there and have fun and we’re all in an environment that we belong in.” Their song writing process is an open form of communication and experimentation, reaching across the table and asking what would happen if someone tried something else. “We get kind of experimental,” Daniel said. “I might say, ‘Kynadi, what happens if you slow this part down?’ We kind of reach across and say, ‘What happens if you try this?’” The band was featured on the Wells Fargo stage at Charlotte Pride in 2017, and they’re also the trio is also the perfect fit for Bla/Alt.
BLAME THE YOUTH
THE BUSINESS PEOPLE
Alexa-Rae Ramkissoon, Kynadi Hankiins and Amber Daniel round out the lineup of the local rock band, Blame The Youth. Their fast and upbeat rhythms match with a driving bass and Daniel’s honey-like vocals. On the band’s debut EP, The Hourglass, Ramkissoon’s stinging guitar riffs and Daniel’s deep bassline perfectly contradict and dance around each other, supported by skilled and well-timed drumming from Hankiins. The bandmates said they are excited for
You already know these guys, right? Alongside Amigo, they opened for Coolio and Judah & The Lion at CL’s Taco Lucha Festival in September, and they’ve more than earned themselves a spot on Eden’s Bla/Alt Festival. They’ve stormed the Charlotte music scene with funky basslines and driving drum beats. It’s easy to see influences from the band members’ favorite bands, Delta Spirit and The Strokes. Particularly in “Raygun Superstar” from the 2016 EP, Dirty Feelings, the opening
guitar riff is reminiscent of The Strokes’ rhythmic guitar. When I met with Nic Robinson, Hyatt Morrill and Connor Hausman at the Playroom on Tuckaseegee Road, they had just wrapped up with a Sunday morning practice. While they were laughing and cracking jokes, it was easy to see why they captivate an audience with a demanding presence. After releasing a couple of recent singles and with tentative plans for a music video on the horizon, they band has evolved in its sound and plans to experiment with new, eellike sounds. “We’re going to start doing different things a lot better. I think we’re going to jump around with different sounds and just figure out where we fit best,” said guitarist and vocalist Robinson. “Which we used to just go for this is a Business People song there you go. Now it’s just more of, ‘What do we want to play?’”
RUMUR
Rumur’s first show was in February 2017 and since then, DJ Dan Wallace and bassist Rahsaan Lacey have been producing glitchy electronic tracks together. Lacey was self-taught before going to Berklee College of Music, where he learned a multitude of musical styles like Latin and jazz. With Wallace, the two of them act like producers for one another, giving advice and
Blame The Youth. Nigel Hood and Andy Mccaw at 2017 Bla/Alt Festival.
BLACK HAUS
Hailing from Greensboro and formed in August 2017, Black Haus is comprised of vocalists Jeffrey Tullís and Patrick Young, drummer Sidney Pennix, guitarist Taylor Williams and bassist Collin Nesbitt. The band had a couple of different names that just didn’t sit well with them, Nesbitt said. At one of their first shows, when the band name was announced, they immediately cringed. It wasn’t until one night, sitting on a porch and hanging out together, that someone said
Keenan Jenkins, aka XOXOK.
PHOTO BY SHANNON KELLY PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTO BY RICKY ROGERS
PHOTO BY COURTNEY MIHOCIK
KANG. feeding off of each other’s ideas and inputs until a song is created. “We kind of just do whatever comes out and don’t really question it,” Lacey said. “It will evolve because we’re getting better at making songs, and it’ll evolve because we have different life experiences forming our work. It’s always constantly changing it’s just a matter of picking the best of it and putting it out there so it’s all going to be a little bit different.”
PHOTO BY CHAD
Leanna Eden (left) at 2017
PHOTO BY RICKY ROGERS
Bla/Alt Festival. “Black Haus,” and everyone was in agreement. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what their genre of music is, as it’s constantly changing from one track to the next. “Describing our genre is weird because we’re all differently inspired by stuff,” Nesbitt said. “Our songs can have like a jazz or like R&B type feel. They really do change on every track because we do every genre. We do rock, we do punk we do funk, we’ll do jazz. So it’s just differences and changes.” Over the last year, Black Haus has matured and their style has changed. Nesbitt pointed out that while their first list of songs were more like pop and easy to remember, their tracklist now is dark and brooding, hitting the heartstrings with emotion. “But I feel like now we’ve really matured, we’re maturing as a group,” he said. “It’s really starting to change and I don’t know if it’s because of the different stuff we all have going on or just because of us playing for a longer time … I feel like our sound has matured to the point where it’s really moody, it’s like gloomy.”
DALLAS THRASHER
He’s a one-man band and experiments with sounds and feelings, exploring past relationships in his music. Charles Ovett throws himself into songwriting with no real process. And it works; his avant garde, lo-fi and grunge-y sound brings listeners in to the deeper side of this solo project. “[I] just enjoy writing and have fun with it while i’m doing it,” Ovett said. “Scrap a bunch, fill it back out again, scrap some more, pull it back out again until I have something that really works and gels and just run with it.” Currently, he has a future album lined up that will be made from beats that an old friend of his makes. Every month, he receives about three to five experimental beats and plans to compile them into an album to release soon. They’re more glitch-y, he described. Much like his 2016 release, Short Cuts EP. Now, Ovett, who’s also plays as drummer in the experimental krautrock duo Joules, said he’s less angry than when he first started out as Dallas Thrasher.
“I’ve mellowed out a lot. When that first album came out I think I was a little bit angry, it was really aggressive, too overbearing, I guess,” he said. “Over the years I mellowed out and I’m like, ‘I got all that out now and I’m good, I’m in my groove now.’” For live performances, Ovett is highenergy, so don’t expect to much of that mellow when he plays at Bla/Alt Festival.
KANG
Kang hasn’t been an active band in the community for some time, but when the crew was offered a spot on the festival line up, they got the gang back together for a reunion show. Bassist Hyatt Morrill, drummer Dan Hitz, guitarist TJ Banks, keyboardist DJ Harns and vocalist Stephen Tekola round out the lineup of the stoner rock band. Like many of the bands playing at Bla/ Alt Festival, they don’t conform to any label and would rather just go with the flow of the SEE
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CLCLT.COM | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | 17
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MUSICMAKER
‘UNIVERSAL PLAYER’ RELEASE PARTY $5; Oct. 16, 8 p.m.; Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St.; snugrock.com
OPPOSITES ATTRACT
can do what I want and he can do what he want. I don’t know how to make beats, period. Like I don’t know how to sit there and put it together, but I know what I want. I know the sounds that I want. So I’ll tell him a sound and he’ll run with it. So on this project, he done taught me some things, I done taught him some things, and I feel like it’s going to be a different wave.
Cuzo Key and FLLS connect two contrasting styles on new project BY RYAN PITKIN
KENION SHERRILL DOESN’T rap, he rides. When I meet with Sherrill, who performs as Cuzo Key, outside of his Davidson home, he explains to me why his laid-back, conversational style doesn’t fit in with many of his peers. “I wouldn’t even call myself a rapper, really. I just like to speak the truth. I just be wanting to give you some knowledge, give you some insight on whatever that subject is,” he says as he rolls weed into a blunt wrap in his lap, unconcerned with the police officer who waves to him as he turns around across the street. “I don’t count bars, I count the beat … and that’s how I write my verses. I don’t usually go bar after bar because that’s not the type of person I am.” Recently, though, Sherrill found a rapper who could go bar for bar with him, even if it wasn’t the same type of bars he was rapping. Sherrill linked up with Lavonte Hines, known locally as rapper and producer FLLS (pronounced like the word “fills”), and the two quickly realized that Sherrill’s beat-riding style meshed well with Hines’ straightforward flow. The two banged out a few songs, then a few more, and they eventually put together a collaborative project called Universal Player, the album release party for which will be at Snug Harbor on Oct. 16. Before it’s time to party, Sherrill chats us up about how he and FLLS built a rapport, and what comes next for him as a solo artist. Creative Loafing: How did Universal Player come about? Kenion Sherrill: We was just working. [FLLS] just made this one funky play beat. I did what I did on it, and that was “Getchu Some.” When I did that, he was like, “I got a slew of beats just for you.” He made another one, and then I got on top of that one, then he made another one, I got on top of that one. And then I wasn’t finishing some of them. So he was like, “You know what, why don’t I get on one of these?” When he got on “Getchu Some,” it was just a regular beat, but then he started adding samples, ad libs, he started putting breaks in it. We played it for some folks and they loved it. But it just wasn’t, “Oh yeah, we like what we heard,” it was more like it was something that they done heard before, that they prolly heard back in the day, and that’s what it reminisces like. 18 | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
Cuzo Key
PHOTO COURTESY OF CUZO KEY
You said you had been previewing the work to people. Who was listening and encouraging that kept y’all going? The circle that we got with Autumn [Rainwater] and Mariah [Scott] and Summer [“SideNote” Windham] and Callis [aka Jah-Monte], everybody in all those circles supported, and we also played it for them and we asked for their honest opinion, like, “If you don’t like this, say it.” I feel like you’ll get a lot better if you hear a lot of honest “No” than a lot of lying “Yes.” So you have eight tracks right now together. How would you define this project? An album? A mixtape? It’s definitely not just a mixtape. I feel like it could have been just a mixtape if he just would have picked the beats that he had sitting around. But we actually sat down and made each one. You haven’t released a solo project since NIONEK in 2016. What have you been up to since then? When I did The Roll Up EP and NIONEK, that was me just rapping, just wanting to put words together and wanting to do songs with folks, just wanting to do music period. I was really experimenting with myself and what I could do. And I figured out what I could do and what I can’t do. From then until now, it was doing features. I had time to do a project, but I didn’t because I was still finding myself. Every time I did a feature with somebody, I was sounding different each time. For two and a half years, I was sounding different. And I was like, “This ain’t it, nope.” I’m working on NIONEK II, though. That’s going to sound like more of me — more of everything that’s done happened in the last two and a half years, since the last time I dropped NIONEK to now. It’s not too much, not too all over the place, just really from then and until now, just another story.
COVER DESIGN BY JOSH HENDERSON
So at that time we had four songs. Everything we’re doing, the body of it is player, it’s down South-ish, it’s funky, I don’t want to be cliché, but it’s something different. What was it that stuck out that made y’all decide to make a whole project out
of it? The diversity. He was into boom bap, I was into ridin’ the beat. So, I felt like he made the beats so he can rap it lyrically, and I can rap it going on rhythm at the same time. He don’t have to change the speed or switch the beat up, none of that. It can ride the same and I
What can we expect at this release party at Snug? I think we are going to perform the whole thing. We’ve got Autumn on it, too. Spaceman Jones. We all run with each other, so most likely they’ll show up for it. Callis gonna open it up for us, and then we just spit the whole thing. We gonna be tired, and it’s gonna be worth it [laughs]. I’m really excited. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM
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Brass Transit October 19
Catapult
October 27
Chanticleer November 1
Foothills Performing Arts Presents
The Adventures of Santa Claus November 29 - December 2
J.E. Broyhill Civic Center 1913 Hickory Blvd. SE Lenoir, NC 28645
MUSIC
FEATURE
PLAY FROM P.17 t music. “We don’t try to play to a certain genre or an audience, we play parts that we feel like playing in the moment and then make it work together,” Tekola said. At the People’s Market in Dilworth on a recent day, the group met up and cracked jokes about each other, laughing playfully about their experience in the band and playing music. “We wanna make good music and we do care what the audience thinks but we don’t care. I’ve had people walk out of my shows,” Tekola chuckled. “I’ll just say some inflammatory shit and people will just walk out, that’s kind of the highlight. People just walking out because I said believing in Spiderman is more plausible than believing in Jesus.” But to Tekola, festivals like this are important, and he believes in speaking out about identity politics in America. As he pointed out, for the most part, white males can straddle different identities, while he feels that black or brown people cannot. “White people get to be individuals. White people get to say, ‘I’m Christian, and I’m LGBTQ. I got tattoos and I work in an office.’ They can straddle different lines, but black people can’t do that. Institutionally in this
country, white people get to be individuals, black people get made out to be a monolith,” Tekola said. At Bla/Alt Fest, Tekola and the rest of Kang get to be individuals within their indescribable music genre and don’t have to stick to a certain stereotype.
XOXOK
Armed with honey-sweet vocals and just a guitar, Keenan Jenkins takes the stage as XOXOK. He began his musical career in middle school, playing clarinet and always fighting for first chair. When he went to a boarding school in Durham, his roommate had a guitar that he would pick up and play on, thus beginning his career as a guitarist. The influences of Frank Ocean and James Blake come through his music as the lyrics flow from his lips and his guitar rings true in tune with his vocals. “I think to thing that I’m always trying to imitate them and be exactly what they are but I know that I cannot be what they are,” Jenkins said. “Somewhere along the line when I’m failing to be them, I have found my own way and found my own unique style somewhere in that failure.” CMIHOCIK@CLCLT.COM
Nutcracker Christmas: Ellington Meets Tchaikovsky
Rhythm of the Dance
Daily & Vincent
Mandy Harvey
December 3 January 5
Foothills Performing Arts Presents
A Wrinkle in Time February 14 - 16
March 21
April 20
Foothills Performing Arts Presents
War of the Worlds May 2 - 4
Caldwell Traditional Musicians Showcase March 9
broyhillcenter.com
828.726.2407 CLCLT.COM | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | 19
MUSIC
SOUNDBOARD OCTOBER 11 COUNTRY/FOLK
Denzel Curry (The Underground) Player Made: An Ode To Southern Rap of All Eras (Snug Harbor)
Chris Stapleton, Marty Stuart, Brent Cobb (PNC Music Pavilion)
POP/ROCK
DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Karz (Tin Roof) Le Bang (Snug Harbor) Dende (Salud Cerveceria)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B The Purpose For Pink: Karen Clark Sheard & Jekalyn Carr (Ovens Auditorium) Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, The Queen’s Guard (Visulite Theatre)
POP/ROCK The Barons (Tin Roof) Brent Cobb in-store & signing (Lunchbox Records) Chachuba (Heist Brewery) Desmond Myers Dwayne Shivers, (Evening Muse) Doom Flamingo - The Official Umphrey’s Mcgee After Party (The Underground) Edge of Reality w/ Reflect//Refine, Descent & Persistent Shadow (The Milestone) The Fed Ups (Comet Grill) Karaoke (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Monthly Songwriter Showcase (Summit Coffee Co., Davidson) Music Bingo with Dr. Music (Heist Brewery) Shana Blake and Friends (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) The Stranger Featuring Mike Santoro, Leslie & Friends (Cabarrus Brewing Company, Concord) Umphrey’s McGee, Southern Avenue (The Fillmore) Open Mic for Musicians (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)
OCTOBER 12 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant)
COUNTRY/FOLK Cody Webb w/ Rebel Union (Sylvia Theatre, York) Hudson Moore (Coyote Joe’s) Taplow (Cabarrus Brewing Company, Concord) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B 20 | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
Andrew Velez (Tin Roof) Beartooth, Knocked Loose (The Fillmore) Big Something, Wormholes (Visulite Theatre) Daddy’s Beemer & Don Babylon w/ Cold Beaches & Leith K. Ali (The Milestone) David Rosales & His Band of Scoundrels, A Different Thread (Evening Muse) Fools Generation EP Party, Annabel Lee, Winters Gate & Lifecurse (Skylark Social Club) Gaelic Storm (Neighborhood Theatre) The Lettermen (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby) Matt Perrone, Allison Matthews (The Rabbit Hole) Music Bingo/Trivia with DJ ShayNanigans (Three Spirits Brewery) Mutt, The Hawkeyes (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Rare Creatures, Grayson Foster (Evening Muse) SRO (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)
OCTOBER 13 COUNTRY/FOLK John Anderson (Don Gibson Theatre, Shelby) Rob McHale Band (Cafe 100, Huntersville)
DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ FWB (Tin Roof) Repainted Tomorrow w/ Deku, Black Box Theory (Tip Top Daily Market) W&W, Cheechmo (World)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Grits & Biscuits (The Fillmore) AfroPop! Charlotte, Vol.25: Goodbye Summer (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub) Von Hunter Album Release Show with Nige Hood and Deion Reverie (Petra’s)
POP/ROCK October Summit Coffee Songwriter Showcase: Marty DeJarnette, Valorie Miller, Rob McHale (Summit Coffee Co., Davidson) 80’s Tribute Night: Kids in America (Primal Brewery, Huntersville) Adam & Elsewhere (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Antiseen, Joecephus And The George Jonestown Massacre, Taped Fist (Neighborhood Theatre) Donna Duncan Band (Comet Grill)
SOUNDBOARD Gladshot, Diamonds and Whiskey (Evening Muse) The Hey Joes (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Lee Knox & Encore (Cabarrus Brewing Company, Concord) Matthew Perryman Jones, Molly Parden (Evening Muse) MIlo & The Ruby Yacht House Band w/ Kenny Segal (Snug Harbor) Ride the Lightning (The Underground) Trey Lewis (Tin Roof)
OCTOBER 14 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jon Hill Recital (Davidson College Tyler-Tallman Recital Hall, Davidson)
DJ/ELECTRONIC More Fyah - Grown & Sexy Vibes (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Bone Snugs-N-Harmony (Snug Harbor)
POP/ROCK Anchor Detail, Pete RG feat. Dave Krusen (exPearl Jam), Uncle Buck (Petra’s) Barnaby Bright Alan Black, (Evening Muse) Metal Church (The Milestone) Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill) Sunday Music Bingo (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern)
OCTOBER 15 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH
CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jesse Lamar Williams & The Menastree Jazz Jam (Evening Muse)
COUNTRY/FOLK Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill)
DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Matt B (Tin Roof) DJ Steel Wheel (Snug Harbor) GLBL: DJ AHuf (Snug Harbor)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Eclectic Soul Tuesdays - RnB & Poetry (Apostrophe Lounge) Kevin Gates, Yung Bleu (Ovens Auditorium) Soulful Tuesdays: DJ ChopstickZ, DJ JTate Beats (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)
POP/ROCK Open Jam with the Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Open Mic hosted by Jarrid and Allen of Pursey Kerns (The Kilted Buffalo, Huntersville) Chvrches, Lo Moon, Sext Message (The Fillmore) The Convalescence, My Own Will, A Feasting Beast, The Stygian Complex, The Silencing Machine (The Milestone) I’m Glad It’s You w/ Problem Addict & Family Friend (Tip Top Daily Market) Sawyer Fredericks, Violet Bell (Evening Muse) Uptown Unplugged (Tin Roof)
OCTOBER 17 COUNTRY/FOLK
Jazz Jam (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)
Open Mic (Comet Grill)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B
DJ/ELECTRONIC
#MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge) Knocturnal (Snug Harbor)
POP/ROCK Find Your Muse Open Mic welcomes Walter Parks (Evening Muse) Music Trivia (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern, Charlotte) Music Bingo (Tin Roof, Charlotte) Music Trivia (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Nothing But Thieves, Grandson, Demob Happy (The Underground) Open Mic with Lisa De Novo (Legion Brewing)
OCTOBER 16
10/10 BASS PHYSICS x ELIOT LIPP 10/12 BIG SOMETHING 10/11 YO MAMA'S BIG FAT BOOTY BAND + The Wormholes 10/18 BLACK JOE LEWIS ! 10/19 PATRICK DAVIS 10/20 THE BREAKFAST CLUB 10/26 INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE - A SAUCERFUL OF PINK FLOYD 10/27 SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND ft STEVE MCMURRY 11/3 BOY NAMED BANJO 11/4 NICKI BLUHM 11/7 WILL HOGE 11/8 THE WEEKS 11/10 THE NIGHT GAME 12/12BAYSIDE
KARAOKE with Mike Earle (Petra’s) Cyclops Bar: Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Mike Shinoda (The Fillmore)
Hill) Emit Radio’s Open Mic/Music Trivia Night (Dixie Pig, Tega Cay) October Residency: Astrea Corp w/ Deion Reverie, Simon Smthng, 6 Cardinal (Snug Harbor) Quincey Blues (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) The Suitcase Junket (Evening Muse) The Toasters w/ Corporate Fandango & South Side Punx (The Milestone) Open House & Karaoke (Sylvia Theatre, York) Open Mic (Summit Coffee Co., Davidson) Open Mic (JackBeagle’s) Open Mic & Songwriter Workshop (Petra’s) Trivia & Karaoke Wednesdays (Tin Roof)
COMING SOON Coin (October 19, Fillmore) Lil Xan (October 21, Fillmore) Screaming Females (October 24, Milestone) Iron Chic (October 26, Milestone) Chris Robinson Brotherhood (October 28, Neighborhood Theatre) Haunted Summer (October 31, Evening Muse) St. Lucia (November 2, Underground) Young The Giant (November 2, Fillmore) Nicki Bluhm (November 4, Visulite) Psychedelic Furs (November 5, Neighborhood Theatre) Vince Gill (November 7, Ovens Auditorium) Papadosio (November 9, Underground) Bob Dylan (November 9, Ovens Auditorium) Steep Canyon Rangers (November 10, Knight Theater) Phantom Limb (November 13, Milestone) Atmosphere (November 20, Underground) Simplified (November 24, Visulite) The Internet (November 26, Fillmore) Ghost (December 2, Ovens Auditorium) Moe (December 5, Fillmore) Bayside (December 12, Visulite)
POP/ROCK All Boy/All Girl, Josh Cotterino, Wild Trees (Tommy’s Pub, Charlotte) The Bible Tour 2018 - A Concert Worship Experience: Matt Maher, Natalie Grant, Andrew Peterson, Daniel & Harvest Bashta, Steven Malcolm (Ovens Auditorium) Chócala, STEFA*, Gasp (The Courtroom, Rock
NEED DIRECTIONS? Check out our website at clclt.
com. CL online provides addresses, maps and directions from your location. Send us your concert listings: E-mail us at mkemp@clclt. com or fax it to 704-522-8088. We need the date, venue, band name and contact name and number. The deadline is each Wednesday, one week before publication.
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CLCLT.COM | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | 21
ARTS
COVER STORY
PHOTO BY PETE SOUZA
President Obama greets the cast of ‘Hamilton’ at the height of the play’s popularity.
FOLLOW THE MONEY ‘Hamilton’ arrives this week, lifting local artists — or eclipsing them? BY PERRY TANNENBAUM
L
AUDED BY BROADWAY
critics as an artistic breakthrough, showered with 11 Tony Awards, celebrated and denounced by successive U.S. presidents and worshipped by millions wherever it has played, Hamilton has been an unprecedented sellout smash since it opened Aug. 6, 2015. It’s the hottest ticket in New York City, and wherever it tours, it’s big — capital boldface letters BIG. And now the actors, the scenery, the technicians and the musicians have arrived in the Q.C., triggering an influx of ticketbuyers, hotel bookings, restaurant reservations and sheer I-got-to-see-Hamilton euphoria that will linger until the tour’s final performance at Belk Theater on Nov. 4. The hullabaloo peaked on Aug. 1 when non-subscription seats went up for grabs. Beginning at 5 a.m., three hours before tickets were scheduled to go on sale, over 110,000 hopefuls queued up to snag seats online — plus an estimated 8,000-plus bots that were poised to steal and scalp tickets, delaying sales until 9:20 a.m. Another crowd lined up at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center box office on North Tryon Street, where wristbands were distributed starting at 5:30 a.m. Just four hours later, the box office allotment of seats had been doled out to proud wearers of 1,200 lucky wristbands, who could score a maximum of four tickets. It wasn’t until 3:37 p.m. that folks still waiting in the online queue were told to abandon all hope. But the financial impact of Hamilton — and the ticketbuying frenzy it brought to Uptown — really began more than a year ago. If you wanted first dibs on Hamilton seats, you had to splurge on a full Blumenthal’s Broadway Lights Series subscription for 2017-18. Largely because Hamilton loomed so enticingly over the rainbow as part of the package, all subscriptions for the Broadway Lights Series, including eight other shows, were sold out by Aug. 1 of last year. A waiting list for those precious subscriptions was announced on June 24, 2017. Not only did Hamilton enable Blumenthal to sell out its entire 2017-18 Broadway Lights inventory, it set the stage for them to launch an additional Encore Series, including reprises of Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Book of Mormon and Lion King. Those also sold pretty well. So more than a whole year of theatergoing at Blumenthal’s big boxes — Belk Theater, 22 | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
“THE ‘REAL THEATER’ VS ‘LOCAL LOONIES’ COMPARISON THE [BLUMENTHAL] AND THEIR PROGRAMMING CREATES WILL ALWAYS BE A NEGATIVE IMPACT UNTIL THE CITY POWER STRUCTURE BECOMES MORE PROGRESSIVE AND TRULY EMBRACES LOCAL ARTISTS.” CARVER JOHNS Ovens Auditorium, and Knight Theater — was built on the public’s insatiable demand for Hamilton tickets. That’s some pretty heavy lifting. But what kind of lift does Hamilton deliver for local artists and arts organizations? Around town, there are grumblings that the big-box successes at the Blumenthal suck audience, revenue and esteem away from local pros, shunting them into the shadows. We heard from Carver Johns during the recent run of The Foreigner at Belmont Abbey College. Back when he was more active on the Charlotte scene, Johns had starring roles in Charlotte’s Web at Children’s Theatre, The Changeling with Innovative Theatre, Fool for Love with Off-Tryon Theatre Company and The Exonerated, the last show produced by Charlotte Repertory Theatre, aka Charlotte Rep, before it flamed out in 2005. “The way [Broadway Lights] is framed and kept separate from local fare suggests that the Blumey shows are ‘real theater’ and the rest of us are Little Rascals throwing things up in a barn,” Johns sais. “And this I believe was the long-term fallout of Angels [in America] and [Charlotte] Rep.” Shuttling back and forth from Charlotte Rep to Children’s Theatre acting jobs — supplemented by gigs as a certified lighting, sound and AV technician and a fight supervisor — Johns could cobble together a livelihood in theater here in town. That can’t happen anymore, unless you’re on the payroll at ImaginOn with Children’s Theatre. When Johns was acting and directing
Fool for Love, theater groups formed coalitions, advertised jointly and coordinated programming schedules. With the light rail’s arrival, the construction of yuppie housing and the demise of Carolina Actors Studio Theatre, the NoDa scene where all that happened has all but disappeared. “Smaller companies have to own that we have eaten our own by driving one another out of business,” Johns admits. “But the ‘real theater’ versus ‘local loonies’ comparison the Belksters and their programming creates will always be a negative impact until the city power structure becomes more progressive and truly embraces local artists.” Tim Ross was a mainstay at Charlotte Rep in leading roles onstage — and prominent at the pioneering Charlotte Shakespeare before that. Over the years, Ross found his lifeline behind the soundboard at the WFAE studio in Spirit Square, where he produced the Charlotte Talks broadcasts five days a week until 2015. What irks Ross is how feebly media has pushed back against the power structure. Even at arguably the friendliest media outlet for performing arts publicity in the Q.C., Ross found that local theater struggled for air. “I had a constant struggle trying to get the host or the other producers to get on board with doing more shows about local theater,” Ross recalls. “I don’t know how Hamilton helps beyond motivating people to go to the theater in general. There might be three or four interesting productions going on at exactly the same time as Hamilton but I’m pretty sure that Hamilton is going to get an
absolute ton of free local press that it doesn’t even need while these other productions will barely get mentioned.” Banding together might help local theater companies accomplish more advertising and promotion, and it would be immensely helpful if local media gave them more of an airing, but a change in outlook could also provide a lift. Tom Gabbard, president and CEO of Blumenthal Performing Arts, scoffs at the notion that Hamilton and Broadway Lights are the natural enemies of local theater. “My arts colleagues who get wound up about this don’t understand that their real competition is not the blockbuster shows or other arts events,” Gabbard insists. “It’s Netflix, brew pubs, the Panthers and a million other things that people do besides go to theater. All of us in the arts, big or small, are together in needing to get the public who aren’t going to the arts to watch less Netflix and go to a show. Worrying about competition within the arts is delusional and misses strategizing on what are solutions.” It’s also delusional to presume that BPA isn’t already reaching out with help, promotional and financial, to local arts groups. After paying staff and maintaining facilities, BPA plows plentiful monies into tilling the soil for local artists and arts groups — then enriching it. But of course, you want to know how much cash we’re talking about. As we began digging into this, BPA issued a press release proclaiming that the sold-out run of The
‘HAMILTON’ $75 and up (Sold out); Oct. 10-Nov. 4, Tmes vary; Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St.; blumenthalarts.org
On Aug. 1, hundreds showed up outside the Blumenthal box office for a chance at ‘Hamilton’ tickets.
Charlotte Symphony performs at Belk Theater, where audiences will see ‘Hamilton.’ Lion King that began in August grossed more than $4.8 million over a three-week, 24-performance engagement. Using a multiplier of 3.66 supplied by the Touring Broadway League, promotions manager Brandon Carter estimated an economic impact of well over $17 million. Set to run for 32 performances, Hamilton will have an even larger impact. Compared to Lion King ticket prices, which averaged $100 each, the range for Hamilton was $75 to $175 a shot, with select VIP premium seats going for $434.50. So ticket sales won’t merely be 33 percent higher because of the longer engagement. Factoring the higher sticker prices, Gabbard predicted last week that Hamilton would gross over $9 million for a total economic impact of more than $30 million — or a less gaudy $23.5 if you go by the more conservative 2.5 multiplier that Gabbard prefers. And that’s not counting all the additional subscription tix — an additional 5,000 subscriptions compared to 201617, a 50-percent increase — and encore
programming that Hamilton has carried on its back. So BPA has plenty of profits to play with, about 10 percent of the Broadway Lights gross for starters. Some of these proceeds go into helping local resident companies like On Q Performing Arts, Three Bone Theatre and Caroline Calouche & Co. pay rental fees at smaller venues under the BPA umbrella, namely McGlohon and Duke Energy theaters in Spirit Square and Booth Playhouse up in Founders Hall. By day, Community School of the Arts gets a break at Spirit Square. Fully itemized, subsidies and rental waivers approached $1 million in 2016-17, since beneficiaries also included users of BPA’s bigger boxes: Opera Carolina, Charlotte Symphony and Charlotte Ballet, who all used the Belk and Knight theaters. These companies would pay nearly 22 percent more to perform in St. Paul, Minnesota, and more than 200 percent more to perform in Dallas, Texas, according to Gabbard. That not only impacts opera, symphony and ballet, it also impacts music lovers
PHOTO COURTESY OF BLUMENTHAL ARTS
PHOTO COURTESY OF BLUMENTHAL ARTS
and balletomanes who subscribe to their performances, keeping ticket prices down. Companies that rent BPA’s venues can also take advantage of their databases to reach out to their untapped market. Whether or not they rent space at BPA’s facilities, companies that have the necessary hardware can utilize Carolina Tix, the ticket-selling engine launched by BPA that’s offered free to all local companies. All of the above may sound a bit underthe-hood or behind-the-scenes, but BPA also ventures into sponsorships of high-profile events. About the same amount of money that goes annually for subsidies and slashed rentals goes into putting up unique events — or bringing in young people to see shows that would otherwise be way beyond their means. The Charlotte Jazz Festival and Breakin’ Convention, a three-day showcase of break dancing, were each launched locally in 2016. Both required outlays of at least $200K annually before they could happen. And have you heard of the Blumey Awards? High schoolers go insane watching
their classmates perform onstage at Belk Theater, unleashing deafening cheers for winners of Best Acting, Design and Musical awards and scholarships. Two Charlotte winners have gone on to New York and won the national Jimmy Award for Best Actress, and two of Charlotte’s best actresses, Eva Noblezada and Abby Corrigan, have gone on to Broadway fame, Corrigan in the national tour of Fun Home and Noblezada in the title role of the Broadway and London productions of Miss Saigon. Ironically, the judges who decide the Jimmy Awards up in New York are more aware of the high level of talent we’re training in Charlotte than most people who live here. High school theater programs across the Metrolina region have been galvanized and incentivized. But without a thriving regional theater company in Charlotte, how can the best talent incubated here stay in the city and build professional careers? How can Corrigan and Noblezada go home again? “We have, as a community, allowed so many of our local arts organizations to close, shut down, wither and wilt with very little pause or remorse,” Karina Caporino declares. A fixture onstage at CAST before it abruptly folded in 2014, Caporino has been a leading light in the Machine Theatre and XOXO guerilla groups, and she’ll be at Spirit Square at the end of November in an Actor’s Gym revival of Noël Coward’s Fallen Angels. With a viewpoint mostly taking in the scene beyond the BPA’s big and small boxes in Uptown, Caporino doesn’t see the Hamilton “lift” extending to the artists and companies she has worked with in the past. She was shaken after seeing the frenzied queue for Hamilton tickets in a city that neglects its own. “The values of our community unnerve me,” she posted on Facebook the following day. “We have the opportunity now to really take a moment to evaluate and reconfigure our values as an arts community. We have the opportunity to refocus ourselves and to push up our own creators. I recognize my chance to change trajectories and push our community in a more productive and inclusive direction, and I’m not throwing away my shot.” Gabbard also sees this Hamilton moment as a ripe one. Calling upon his own experience running an affiliated League of Regional Theatres company in the Denver metro, he advises local groups to ride the lift rather than fighting against it. “I used the success of someone else’s big shows as a launch point for my own success,” he explains. “I’m not spinning to say that the whiners need to get more strategic about leveraging off the success of these big shows. In Denver, I grew the subscription from 500 to 10,000 by carefully researching the Broadway series and building my LORT seasons off it, and off of what some CLCLT.COM | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | 23
“ALL OF US IN THE ARTS, BIG OR SMALL, ARE TOGETHER IN NEEDING TO GET THE PUBLIC WHO AREN’T GOING TO THE ARTS TO WATCH LESS NETFLIX AND GO TO A SHOW. WORRYING ABOUT COMPETITION WITHIN THE ARTS IS DELUSIONAL” TOM GABBARD, PRESIDENT/CEO, BLUMENTHARL PERFORMING ARTS PHOTO COURTESY OF BLUMENTHAL ARTS
consumers found missing in the experience.” Does that sort of thing happen in Charlotte? Not so much. We thought it was a promising sign that CPCC Theatre and Charlotte Symphony were both staging shows later this month steeped in the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber — just six weeks after Webber’s Love Never Dies played the Belk. In his 35 years on Elizabeth Avenue, drama department chair Tom Hollis has seen precious little overlap between the audience that turns out for Broadway Lights and the crowds that line up for CPCC’s musical offerings. He fondly remembers the time at Belk Theater when someone sitting in front of him turned to a friend and asked, “Have you ever heard of this Theatre Charlotte?” Likewise, Symphony executive president Mary A. Deissler described the alignment of the Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber concert with the Love Never Dies tour as serendipitous rather than designed. “We didn’t plan it that way — just coincidence,” she confides. “But as we know our Pops [Series] audience loves Broadway, we viewed it as a great additional option.” Less hand-wringing and more strategic planning couldn’t hurt, that’s for sure. Whether or not local arts organizations take advantage of next-big-things like Lion King, Book of Mormon, and Hamilton, Gabbard maintains that BPA is still benefiting theater companies around town. As a member of the Independent Producers Network, BPA invests in many of the shows that wind up opening on Broadway, touring across America and popping up again on college campuses or community theaters. Shows produced by IPN 24 | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
that have played at Theatre Charlotte, Actor’s Theatre or CPCC Summer Theatre in recent years include 9 to 5, Memphis, The Drowsy Chaperone, The Mountaintop, Spamalot, and The Addams Family. Among the IPA shows still headed for the Belk — and Broadway — are Dear Evan Hansen, Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella, Donna Summer The Musical and Tootsie. Closer to opening night, Caporino was striking a more balanced and conciliatory tone. “It’s a ‘yes and ...’ situation,” she begins. “Yes, it is super exciting that Hamilton exists, is coming to Charlotte, is getting all this attention for and engagement with the arts, and we should use this opportunity to examine how we as a community value our local artists. Do we provide them with ample funding? Do we provide them with marketing and media coverage? Do we provide them room for errors? Are we making sure what we are providing is being done consciously and with great intention across broad spectrums of identity, race, class, gender? And do we value what is made here in Charlotte?” On the Charlotte scene since 2007, when she was still finishing her college degree, Caporino still wrestles with student loan debt as she tries to balance work in the organic grocery industry with a career as a performing artist. Optimistically winking, she acknowledges that the artistic career of her dreams isn’t possible here yet — and that she thinks about leaving. “I’m also rather stubborn,” she adds, “and don’t want to throw in the towel on the Queen City just yet.” BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in ‘A Star Is Born’
ARTS
WARNER
FILM
STILL SINGING Remake hits all the right notes BY MATT BRUNSON
BASED ON THE timeline carefully laid out
by Hollywood, it appears that every generation needs a version of A Star Is Born to call its own. Excluding 1932’s What Price Hollywood? (which included some thematic DNA that would be carried over), the first version to appear was the 1937 Best Picture Oscar nominee A Star Is Born, starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March in the only interpretation that’s a straight drama bereft of ample musical numbers. Next came the best version — the 1954 gem starring Judy Garland and James Mason — and this was followed by the weakest version — the 1976 hit starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. Conspicuously missing is a 1990s edition to keep the gaps closed, but that decade saw Whitney Houston in 1992’s The Bodyguard, so I guess that’s close enough. All of which brings us to the 2018 version of A Star Is Born (***1/2 out of four), a splendid remake which ably demonstrates that good stories never die, they just patiently rest as filmmakers figure out how to bring back their sparkle. In this case, it’s Bradley Cooper who deserves most of the credit. In addition to essaying one of the two leading roles, he also directed and co-produced the picture, co-penned the screenplay, and cowrote a handful of the original songs. If he was also responsible for the catering services, that’s not reflected in the end credits — still, his involvement in that capacity wouldn’t surprise me, given his total dedication to this project. Yet his greatest achievement arguably turns out to be his generous support of Lady Gaga, a revelation in her first significant movie role (no, I don’t count Machete Kills). Jackson Maine (Cooper) is an established music star whose career trajectory might
be on the descent, particularly when his alcoholic tendencies are added to the equation. Meanwhile, Ally (Gaga) toils in a restaurant, writes songs she figures no one will ever see, and has the honor of being the only woman allowed to perform at the aforementioned drag show. It’s during her rendition of “La Vie en Rose” that Jackson, stopping off for yet another drink or five, first becomes aware of her presence — and her talent. He ends up taking her under his wing, leading to a relationship that flourishes on both the professional and personal levels. But there’s always the booze hovering around the edges of his life, a complication that concerns not only Ally but also Jackson’s brother and manager Bobby (Sam Elliott) and Ally’s producer Rez (Rafi Gavron). Any worries that Lady Gaga might have turned out to be another Madonna (great pop star, wretched actress) are dispelled almost immediately, with the superstar delivering a performance that’s instinctively warm and natural. Cooper is also terrific — when he first appears, he sounds exactly like Sam Elliott, which proves to be apropos since they’re portraying siblings. And speaking of Elliott, he’s sensational here. Providing the movie with most of its heart (yes, I had to wipe away tears at the end of the scene in which Bobby drops off Jackson after they have a “moment”), he’s more than deserving of what would be his first career Oscar nomination. Look also for stellar support from Hamilton player Anthony Ramos as Ally’s pre-stardom friend, Dave Chapelle as Jackson’s lifelong friend, and especially Andrew Dice Clay as Ally’s loving dad. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
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BY PAT MORAN
JEFF JACKSON TAKES the title of his new novel, Destroy All Monsters from the greatest — and noisiest — band you never heard of. Destroy All Monsters was a collection of Detroit visual artists turned art-rockers, who in turn stole their moniker from a 1968 Japanese monster movie starring Godzilla. “I like pulling the connotations of the Godzilla movie [for the book], the battle of the monsters,” says Jackson, who lists playwright, artist and musician on his resume along with novelist. “It’s appropriate for right now, [because] there is no shortage of monsters roaming the landscape.” The novel, which is the focus of a book launch party at Goodyear Arts on Oct. 19, follows a group of young fans and fledgling bands trying to make sense of an epidemic of killings sweeping the music scene. Bands are getting slaughtered on stage for no reason, rhyme or motive. Like an old-school vinyl single, Jackson’s tome is split into two sides. Side A is the fleshed-out novel, documenting a young woman and her friends’ obsession with the killings. Flip the book over, and you’ll find the novella My Dark Ages. Named after a proto-punk single by Cleveland noise terrorists Pere Ubu, Jackson’s B-side reads like a radical remix of Destroy All Monsters. “It comes from the idea that the A-side is the catchier tune and the B-side is where you put the odder track,” Jackson says explaining the book’s structure. “The B-side is a deepening of the story of the A-side, and it dramatizes events that are only mentioned in the A-side.” The book’s flip side also depicts an alternate reality where the characters from the A-side have radically different roles, he continues. “Together I think the A and B sides create something that is greater than either of the sections alone,” Jackson concludes. Creative Loafing: When did you get the idea for Destroy All Monsters? Jackson: My notes for it go back over 10 years. It started with the image of a shooting in a small rock club. It felt very fantastic and heightened. It’s alarming how that scenario is no longer so bizarre. Reality has caught up with that image. On the subject of reality catching up with your fiction, you are also in a band now. It’s very strange. I didn’t get involved in the band until after the book was written, and
#ShapingCLT: Access, Equity, Quality Life
Jeff Jackson
Wednesday Oct. 24th 2018
PHOTO BY LYDIA BITTNER-BAIR
6:30-8:30pm
‘DESTROY ALL MONSTERS’ BOOK LAUNCH PARTY Friday, October 19, 7 p.m. Goodyear Arts, 1720 Statesville Ave.
I never wrote the book with the idea of ever being in a band. When the book was finished, my friend Jeremy Fisher asked me and local poet Amy Bagwell if we would write lyrics to some of his music. So I started coming up with possible melodies and Jeremy and I started creating songs. That’s how I got involved in this band Julian Calendar. It feels like it happened in defiance of what I wrote. Can you talk about the book’s relationship with rock music? The book is a dark love letter to rock ’n‘ roll. There is still a lot of great music being made today, but music isn’t able to move the cultural needle the way it used to in decades past. Great music doesn’t mean what it used to mean. It feels like there’s a lot less at stake for musicians because it’s so hard to make a living with our digital culture, and it’s so hard to get noticed. For fans what’s missing is that cultural spark that creates a sense of community and identity for people around music. Some of my characters are powered by feeling that lack, wanting the music to mean more than it does now. Your prose captures the rhythms of punk rock and experimental rock. Yes, the musical quality of everything is important to me, whether I’m writing about rock ’n‘ roll or something else. I was concerned with the sound of the sentences, the clipped quality of the language, also the rhythms of how text in the chapters moves
October’s installment of the #ShapingCLT series will focus on Access, Equity and Quality of Life in Charlotte. Join an interactive session, hear local advocates discuss our community’s collective health, and leave with actionable steps. TICKETS: http://bit.ly/ShapingCLTHealthyCity
— how you move between sections. I worked a long time on it to get the right feel. I was thinking about the Velvet Underground, where Lou Reed talked about wanting to build those songs so they would live beyond the present. He was careful about stripping out things that he thought would date them. That was in my mind – stripping out things that felt extraneous and trying to touch on contemporary issue without writing a manifesto of the Internet and streaming culture.
point where it’s impossible to do that now. Instead you see this violent culling happening in the book. Some of the characters think that it’s in some way analogous to punk’s year zero. It’s a horrifying idea, and hopefully it’s horrifying within the novel. The violence is meant to be heightened. I’m not trying to write a sociological look at gun violence in America. It’s alarming that current events have caught up to the book, and I’m worried that for readers approaching it now, it feels a bit more realist than I ever intended.
Can you talk about the violence in the book? Are we at the point where some people see violence as a creative act or a bid for celebrity? I hope not. There are a lot of theories that different characters in the book have about what this epidemic of violence means, if it means anything. Different characters come down on different viewpoints but the novel isn’t endorsing what any of the characters are saying. One of the ideas that is thrown around is how to make music matter again. There is the old punk idea that you wipe the cultural slate clean to get to year zero, which was really effective in punk. But it feels like we’re at the
Is it fair to say the book is about more than music and art? Is there a broader picture here? I’m using music to talk about something that artists across all genres are facing – What does it look like to create meaningful art in a world where it’s difficult to tell the signal from the noise? How do you create stakes for your own work when it feels like no one is listening? Or you put it out there and two weeks later it’s gone? The book isn’t providing answers, but hopefully it is deepening the questions and bringing them into sharper focus. PMORAN@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | 25
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STATE OF THE DATE What it means to be a woman in the nightlife scene in the Kavanaugh era would contain) like, “So you internalized feedback ... what next?!” and “SEEM MORE this week?” APPROACHABLE: move your mouth while My boyfriend asks me that question you silently read!” also “5 outfits that say every week. And unless I’ve been somewhere dependable and unlikely to get pregnant.” new, I’ll sigh because my answer is usually, Insert *lightbulb* moment. Almost every “I have no idea.” But that’s also why I love night I’ve gone out this week, the topic of writing about nightlife. Even if I haven’t Kavanaugh has come up. And in some ways, gone to a new venue, the conversations I some version of Kavanaugh has come up have on a nightly basis will always inspire every single night I’ve gone out, ever. From my articles. catcalling to #baddecisions, the dynamic of So in this week’s news, Brett Kavanaugh. “relations” has always been the topics of I’m not saying I don’t care what views you conversation as one navigates through the have on #MeToo, but I don’t care about your treacherous landscape that is dating. views. If you’ve ever been in a hairy “It’s a tough time for situation after a couple drinks, heterosexual, white men you know that an encounter right now,” one of my guy can quickly go left or right friends said in jest. And you for both — or all if you’re know if I thought it was into that sort of thing — anything outside of jest, parties really quickly. And he would’ve caught these I know for a fact that my hands. But his statement friends and I have plenty was the epitome of all the of stories when it comes statements that people to why we understand the like me hear and either reality of what it means to decide, “Alright, let’s effing admit, “Yeah ... #MeToo.” AERIN SPRUILL go,” or they just release the So that’s that. biggest sigh and keep it moving. Never theless, the So for him, “no harm no foul,” I conversations we’ve all witnessed chuckled and then sighed. or taken part in over the past year But the truth is, that is my experience, regarding #MeToo are very necessary from especially in nightlife, all the time. I’m a social progression standpoint. That’s why blacklisted — for lack of a better term — a lot of proponents have experienced a bleak as the “angry black woman,” “man hater, couple of days this past week, especially “feminist,” “staunch leftist” or I’m silent given the outcome of Bill Cosby’s case. But because I just don’t want to be stereotyped I’m the pessimist, feminist, black women as any of the above. And honestly, the who says, “I’m not surprised at all.” silence is way more overwhelming because Due to the nature of the political and I feel like I’m not doing my part. Talk about social environments currently, these are the #blackfemalequeerguilt. It’s stifling. You live topics of conversation after a few drinks at the bar when there’s no gossip to discuss. So in two worlds constantly, either you can you tend to engage in or overhear quite a few educate or you can chop every person who conversations about what it means to be a shares an opinion that differs from yours drunk man versus a drunk woman engaging down as “ignorant.” in relations after three or more drinks in. Needless to say, I was reminded very “I mean ... If I treated every interaction quickly of what it feels like to be in “the I’ve had with a woman according to these sunken place,” revisiting conversations ‘new rules’ the #MeToo movement has about black versus white, Republican versus created I’d be in a lot of trouble ... ” (One of Democrat and female versus male when the things overheard #interesting.) Kavanaugh was allowed a “seat at the table.” So while I was grappling over what to It’s a tough conversation that needs to write about after the usual question from be had, but that’s why I struggled to find a my boyfriend, I stumbled across a New voice even though I had plenty of reasons York Magazine account dedicated to the to discuss what it means to be a woman cartoons that they include in their “often in nightlife after a “tough week.” When in controversial” articles. And the post was reality, it should’ve been apparent what my cover art that was a picture of a woman and response should’ve been to my boyfriend, the title was “A Working Woman’s Magazine.” “I’m going to talk about what it feels like to Around the woman, were phrases (thought exist as a woman.” bubbles or insights into what the magazine BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
“WHAT ARE YOU going to write about
ENDS
FeeLing Lonely?
CROSSWORD
BE AWARE ACROSS
1 Goof (up) 5 Gland near a kidney 12 NASCAR units 16 ER skill 19 Vocal quality 20 On the dot 21 Jai -22 “... boy -- girl?” 23 “This shop sells every fruity frozen dessert flavor”? 26 Ryan of films 27 Hot peppers 28 Bank charge 29 In -- (bored) 30 Three or four 31 Segway inventor Dean 32 Broncos’ gp. 33 “John Brown’s Body” poet’s wages? 36 Mexico Mrs. 37 Long cut 38 TV’s Swenson 39 Lofty nest 40 Flying disc that toy spaniels love to fetch? 44 Was a blowhard 46 Big name among cello virtuosos 47 Label for Elton John 48 Bric-a- -- (trinkets) 49 Ship’s trail 51 Thorough search of an Apple computer? 59 Pierre’s “here” 62 Virile type 65 Inferior to 66 Mixed in with 67 Lots of sun-dried brick surrounding an empty space? 72 Former Navaho foes 73 Toy with 74 Massive mammal, for short 75 K’ung Fu- -- (Confucius) 76 Political group turns against one of its own members? 80 This, in Argentina 82 Dinghy pair 83 -- polloi (the masses) 86 Some electric cars 90 Early-flowering leguminous trees 94 Flemish painter being violent? 98 Love, in Paris
99 Slacken 100 Beard, e.g. 101 Ming of basketball 102 “The Zoo Story” playwright with red hair? 105 -- Jima 106 “-- de Lune” 108 Momentous time periods 109 Omanis, e.g. 110 D.C. ballplayer 111 Milano of “Charmed” 112 Was idle 113 Enter a sea between Siberia and Alaska? 117 Broke bread 118 Years on end 119 Put in place 120 Tony winner Adams 121 Danson of “Dad” 122 Player’s fee 123 Mutinied ship of 1839 124 Mems. of the upper house
DOWN
1 Is loyal to 2 Romeo type 3 Closeness 4 Norman Vincent -5 Big goons 6 ER figures 7 Assert again 8 Drawing from many styles 9 Aswan Dam’s river 10 Obstinate animal 11 Astral feline 12 Noted locale of tar pits 13 Alaskan language 14 Singer LuPone 15 She’s part of the fam 16 Solace 17 Early baby, informally 18 Pollen-count plant 24 15-Down, e.g. 25 Scope 30 Tennis zingers 32 ‘80s sitcom 33 Highchair neckwear 34 Atlanta-to-Charlotte dir. 35 Racial rights gp. 37 Twisted and turned 41 “-- goes it?” 42 Largest city of Nebraska 43 Walton of Wal-Mart 44 Chocolate treat 45 Sturdy wood 48 Kiosk, e.g. 50 Stage hams 52 Nuns’ home
53 Co. honcho 54 Hazy image 55 Rally yell 56 Skip over 57 Boxes for recycling 58 Ax feature 59 “It’s my turn” 60 -- rug (dance) 61 Cake froster 63 Helps illicitly 64 Approaching 68 Pres. before DDE 69 White -- ghost 70 GM security service 71 Clan symbol 77 “-- one to talk!” 78 Severe 79 The lady 81 Nile slitherer 84 Away for an extended break 85 Cry after catching someone in the act 87 Save for later 88 “Little Birds” author 89 Warehouse charges 90 Directs fury toward 91 Dubai, e.g. 92 Gave away 93 Pesters 94 Shul head 95 Spend 96 Stinging flier 97 Brazilian port city, in brief 99 Pass by 103 Expose by blabbing 104 “-- you clever!” 106 The Indians, on sports tickers 107 U-shaped instruments 110 Terse denial 111 Undercover? 113 Viking realm 114 Intel org. 115 Senator Kaine 116 Hellenic “H”
graB Your copy today
SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 30.
CLCLT.COM | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | 27
ENDS
SAVAGE LOVE
QUICKIES Just the tips BY DAN SAVAGE I was involved with a straight man who enjoys cross-dressing and taking explicit photos. The problem is that the props he uses belong to his three children, all under age 12. For example, he dressed up as a slutty schoolgirl and wore his daughter’s backpack. He dressed up as a slutty cowgirl and posed with his son’s stuffed horse. He even had the horse eating his “carrot.” I told him he should not use his children’s things as props. He believes that his children will never see the photos, so no harm will come of it. I’m horrified at the thought of these kids (perhaps as adults) stumbling over these pictures. He posts them on Instagram and Facebook, so they aren’t private and he can’t control where they go. It’s one of the reasons I ended the relationship. Is there anything I can say to him? CANCELED DEFINITELY PROMISING RELATIONSHIP OVER PHOTO SESSIONS
You told him what he’s doing is wrong, you explained the enormous risk he’s running, and you dumped him, CDPROPS. You could take one last run at it and try to explain that his children finding these photos isn’t one of those “low-risk, high-consequence events,” i.e., something that’s unlikely to happen but would be utterly disastrous if it did. (Think of the super volcano that is Yellowstone National Park erupting or a deranged, racist billionaire somehow managing to win a U.S. presidential election.) Nope, if he’s posting these photos online, at least one of his children will stumble over them — or one of their friends will. (“Hey, isn’t this your dad? And your backpack?”) Your ex needs to knock this shit off, and will most likely need the help of a mental-health pro in order to do so. My parents were married for almost 40 years and, on paper, things seemed fine. They rarely fought and were an example of a strong, monogamous marriage until the day my mother died. Recently, I found writings by my dad revealing he had several casual encounters with men over the course of their marriage. Do I tell him I know? We are close, but sex isn’t something we usually discuss. What should I do with this information, if anything? A DEEPLY UPSETTING LIE THAT SCALDS
When you say their relationship seemed fine “on paper,” ADULTS, what you mean is their 28 | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
relationship was decent and loving. Well, now you know it wasn’t perfect — but no relationship is. Your mother is dead (I’m sorry for your loss), and either she made peace with this fact about her husband long ago or she never knew about it. Either way, no good will come from confronting your father about the handful of dicks he sucked decades ago. I’m a 47-year-old virgin straight man. What advice can you give me on losing my virginity? WANTING AND HOPING
There are lots of 40-yearold-and-up women out there who are virgins — they write in, too — so putting “middle-aged virgin seeks same” in your personal ad wouldn’t be a bad idea. Find someone in your same situation, WAH, and treat her with kindness, gentleness and patience — the same as you would like to be treated.
things with your partner. I’m scared of two things. (1) I’m scared that if I break up with my girlfriend of four years, I will be throwing away the best thing I will ever have because I’m scared that I don’t love her in the way she deserves (in the way people say you will “just know” about) or because we have normal relationship problems and both have our own mental-health issues. (2) I’m also scared that if I don’t break up with her, I am keeping her in a relationship that is not good because of my fear of never finding someone as good as her, and we would both actually be happier with someone else. SCARED OF BEING ALONE
1. Nobody “just knows,” SOBA, and everyone has doubts — that’s why commitments are made (consciously entered into) and are not some sort of romantic or sexual autopilot that kicks in when we meet the “perfect” person. We commit and recommit and forgive and muddle through — but when we’re asked about our relationships, we tend to lean on
DAN SAVAGE
I’m married and poly, with one partner in addition to my husband. My partner has a friend-with-benefits arrangement with a woman he’s been with since before we met. The FWB is not poly, but she’s always known my partner is. She has always insisted they’re not a couple, but he knows she would be hurt if she found out he was with someone else, so he has avoided telling her he’s now also with me. I don’t like being someone’s secret. My husband knows I’m with someone else and is fine with it. If my partner’s FWB felt the same, I wouldn’t see a problem. But this feels oddly like I’m helping my partner cheat on his FWB, even though they’re “not a couple” (her words). So it’s not cheating ... is it? PRETTY OBVIOUSLY LOST, YEAH
It’s not cheating, it’s plausible deniability. Your partner’s FWB would rather not know he’s seeing anyone else, so she doesn’t ask him about his other partners and he doesn’t tell. Accommodating his FWB’s desire not to know about other partners — doing the DADT open thing — does mean keeping you a secret, POLY, at least from her. If you’re not comfortable with that, you’ll have to end
clichés like “It was love at first sight,” “I just knew,” “The One” — clichés that often fill others with doubt about the quality of their relationships. 2. Get on iTunes and download the original Broadway cast recordings of Company, Follies, and A Little Night Music. Pay particular attention to “Sorry-Grateful,” “The Road You Didn’t Take” and “Send in the Clowns.” If I write you a letter asking for advice and don’t want it published, even anonymously, will you answer? KEEPING IT CONFIDENTIAL, ’KAY?
While I can’t respond to every letter I receive, KICK, I do sometimes respond privately. Just one request: If you send a letter that you don’t want published, please mention that at the start. I will frequently read an extremely long letter — so long that I start making notes or contacting experts before I finish reading it — only to discover “please don’t publish this” at the bottom. If a letter isn’t for publication, please mention that at the beginning. I promise that doing so increases your chances of getting a private response. On the Lovecast, adult babies explained, finally: savagelovecast.com; mail@savagelove.net; @ fakedansavage on Twitter; ITMFA.org
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SOLUTION TO THIS WEEK'S PUZZLE
ARIES
(March 21 to April 19) A colleague might offer to open a door for you professionally. But before you walk through it, be sure this “favor” isn’t attached to an obligation you might find difficult to discharge.
TAURUS
(April 20 to May 20) Your creativity, your persistence and your reliability could lead to a major career shift. Be sure to use that other Taurean trait, your practicality, when discussing what the job offers.
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(May 21 to June 20) A changing situation might require some adjustments you might not have been prepared to make. However, flexibility in this matter could be the best course to follow at this time.
CANCER (June 21 to July
22) You’re in a period of fluctuating moods, which is not unusual for the Moon Child. Your emotions stabilize by the 26th. Meanwhile, try to hold off making major decisions until then.
LEO (July 23 to August 22) That keen sense of perception helps you hunt down those minute details that others overlook. And, of course, your Leonine ego will accept the expected praise with good grace. VIRGO (August 23 to
September 22) Be careful not to be confrontational when raising a work-related issue. Better to make a request than a demand. And, of course, be prepared to back up your case with facts.
LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Your ego might be hurt when a colleague turns down your offer to help. But accept it as a rejection of your offer, not of you. A friend from the past could re-emerge by week’s end. SCORPIO (October 23 to
November 21) A flow of positive energy turns a work project you didn’t want to do into something you actually love doing. Now, take that attitude into your social, intimate life -- and enjoy what follows.
SAG I T TA R I U S
(November 22 to December 21) Working hard to meet your professional goals is fine. But don’t neglect your private life, especially where it concerns your more cherished relationships.
CAPRICORN (December
22 to January 19) “Patience” remains the key word in dealing with an emotionally sensitive situation involving a close friend or family member. Help comes your way by week’s end.
AQUARIUS
(January 20 to February 18) With new information coming in, it’s a good time to rethink some of your goals without taking suggestions from others, no matter how well-meaning they might be. PISCES (February 19 to March 20) Making progress on your project is relatively easy in the early part of the week. A problem could arise midweek. But all goes swimmingly once it’s resolved.
BORN THIS WEEK: Holding fast to your principles, no matter what, inspires others to follow your example. 30 | OCT. 11 - OCT. 17, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
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